Harry Potter and the Scrolls of Merlin
by Lee Scoresby
Summary: Harry is back at his 6th year at Hogwarts. What will happen when he looses somone close and discovers somthing new about his struggle with Voldemort. Only the Scrolls of Merlin can give him the answers. HarryGinny.
1. Home Bitter Home

Note: I do not own any of the characters, places, names and stuff like that. All comments are welcome. First fic by the way.

Chapter 1: Home Bitter Home

Summer is most kid's favorite time of year. School is out. The weather is nice and they can hang out with their friend all day long. Not so for Harry Potter. While he is out of school and the weather is nice he cannot hang out with his friends all day and it's his least favorite part of the year.

The second week of the holidays and already Harry was finding himself bored out of his mind. But at the same time attentive. Like last summer only now more than ever Harry was listening to the news all day. He finally persuaded his aunt and uncle to let him have a paper rout so that he could earn some extra cash. He had a whole stack of galleons in Gringotts but he doubted muggle shops would accept them. So with his first pay check he bought himself a radio for his room. So far Voldemort had remained quiet this summer. The only thing Harry heard on the news that may have anything to do with the wizarding world is a set of streetlights that turn off whenever a car drives by.

But Voldemort and his recent inactivity wasn't the only thing on Harry's mind there was something else there too, try as he might to forget it. Sirius. Almost nightly Harry had been having the same dream. In it Sirius taunts Bellatrix before being caught off guard and falling through the curtain behind him. He had heard voices behind that curtain, he could hear them softly talking.

But no one else had heard them, save Luna. She said that she could hear them too. Luna believes that she will someday reach her mother on the other side of that curtain, as will Harry with Sirius. But Harry wasn't certain he could believe any of that, in fact he probably shouldn't since Luna was a bit loony. But then again she had heard the voices. Perhaps what she had said was true.

Harry sat up in his bed at 4 Privet Drive. Perhaps he should write Luna right now and ask her how he could get Sirius back. He dove for his desk and snatched out a quill and a piece of parchment and started writing.

'Dear Luna, How's your summer been so far? Mine's been great. I was wondering if you knew how to get Sirius back?"

Harry'

Harry sat back to read what he'd written. Then violently crumpled it up chucked it in the general direction of his wastebasket and kicked the leg of his desk before flopping back on his bed.

"Keep the racket down in there!" yelled uncle Vernon from downstairs, "I'm trying to read!"

His uncle muttered some other inaudible curse then fell silent once more. The letter would never work Harry thought. If she knew how to get Sirius back then why didn't she save her mother as well? Every time he thought about Sirius he thought about how much it had been his fault that he had died in the first place. It was all because he had disregarded what his best instincts told him and made a foolish decision.

He was just about to turn on the radio once more to listen for any more wizard activity when the doorbell rang. Although usually when people come to the door they are just delivering a package or something but for some reason Harry had a different feeling today. He listened attentively.

"Who's that Petunia?" asked uncle Vernon.

There was no answer and Harry heard a shuffle that was his uncle going to the door. As his footsteps rounded the corner he heard the distinguishable voice of Lucious Malfoy.

"Petrificus Totalus" he said.

"What in the name of..." uttered uncle Vernon as he saw his wife stiff as a board on the floor.

"Expelliarmus"

Then Harry heard a large thump, obviously Harry's uncle falling to the floor. Harry felt a chill go up his spine. Lucious Malfoy was in his house and all he had to protect himself was his wand. He heard Malfoy's shoes thumping on the stairs. Slowly.

Wait, he thought to himself. Wasn't Malfoy in Azkaban? He was sure of it and yet that had sounded an awful lot like him. He heard him reach the top of the stairs. He looked franticly around the room but found nowhere to hide except his closet but he would be found soon enough. He'd rather face him now.

He slowly drew his wand from his back pocket and held it at the ready as the door handle started to turn. All of a sudden the door flung open revealing Lucious Malfoy in the flesh.

"Impedementia!" yelled Harry

But Lucious blocked the curse wordlessly and kept up his advance. Harry tried several more spells and jinxes but to no avail until Lucious was right on top of him and leaned right into his face.

"I've been sent to retrieve you Potter." Sneered Lucious, "Care to guess who sent me?"

When Harry didn't reply Lucious laughed although the laugh didn't sound all that sinister. When Lucious regained his composure he backed off of Harry a bit.

"Wotcher, Harry." Said Tonks as she started crumpled up her face turned her features back to 'normal' and her hair back to pink, "Mad-Eye asked me to see if I could get in your room without a struggle. Looks like you need to step up security a bit here, eh?" Harry exhaled deeply and he realized that he'd been holding his breath throughout Tonks's advance.

"Gave me quite a fright you did." Remarked Harry, "what are you doing here. I thought Dumbledore would have kept me in the dark until I was 20."

"Now I know you're upset at Dumbledore but he's got your best interests at heart you know." Tonks said reassuringly, "Best pack your trunk and stuff I'll be ready to go in five"

As Tonks exited the room he wondered if she had been sent alone. Although she was a formidable opponent she was no match for even two death eaters. But he supposed it would look a little odd if a horde of wizards entered someone's house and might draw unnecessary attention. Harry finished packing his things and gathered up Hedwig's cage and started down the stairs wishing he could use magic to levitate them instead of dragging them down the stairs the old fashioned way.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw his uncle laying motionless on the floor but could find no sign of his aunt.

"Ready to go" asked Tonks, "Stepping through the front door.

"Ya, think you could give me a hand with these, I can't use my wand during summer."

"Oh sure, sorry Harry forgot you couldn't use your wand. Been a few since I was last in Hogwarts. Although as I recall you've got a history of using magic in the summer."

He was still a little worried about being expelled from Hogwarts as he had come so close to doing last year. It was the only home he'd ever really had, along with the burrow. He didn't even realize that he'd already used magic just a second ago on Tonks. Harry watched as Tonks levitated the Trunk and pretended to carry it out the door. Carrying it, Harry realized would be a good idea since the locals, Mrs. Figg not included, where not used to seeing floating suitcases. As Harry stepped out the door he saw to his horror a familiar Ford Anglia.

"Where'd you find that thing?" asked Harry a little shocked, "I thought I'd never see it again."

"Well Hagrid found it one day in the woods, finally ran out of gas it seems. Gave it to Dumbledore who in turn gave it to Arthur and he donated it to the ord- I mean the, um, well, you know."

Tonks looked around her but saw no one that may have overheard her. Harry went around the back to open the trunk for Tonks.

"No space back there Harry, we'll have to put it in the back seat."

Harry wondered briefly what might be in the back trunk but he had the feeling that Tonks wouldn't tell him anyhow.

The trip to twelve Grimauld place wasn't a long one but it gave Harry some time to do some thinking. He certainly wasn't looking forward to going back to the house. He had considered going to live there with Sirius until his death but now he wished he never had to go back there. Sirius had been the closest thing he'd ever had to a father.

Just before their arrival Tonks aroused him from his thoughts.

"We've got some legal stuff to take care of when we get there. Sirius left half of his possessions to you and Remus and a few things to the, uh, the, um, the, the..."

"I get it," said Harry, "why don't we just call it the naturalists society or something?"

"You know that's a good idea, oh, and so Sirius left you twelve Grimauld Place so we've got to have you sign some papers before we can officially live in the place again. Dumbledore is there waiting for you. He's lucky that Arthur works for the ministry. He got him to be the witness from the ministry so that we wouldn't alert anyone in the ministry and we can be sure Arthur won't go blabbing."

"Yeah, I suppose." said Harry. He was looking even less forward to going to Grimauld place now. He and Dumbledore hadn't parted on excellent terms last year. In fact the last he saw Dumbledore was right after he trashed his office. Harry wished silently that he could keep a better check on his emotions.

After a while they pulled up outside number 11 Grimauld place and soon enough number 12 appeared in between the two other houses and it slowly shoved the other two houses aside. Tonks walked up and tapped her wand on the door and they walked in. Harry could hear voices coming from the kitchen and he recognized them to be those of Dumbledore and Arthur Weasley. They seemed unaware that Harry and Tonks had arrived and continued their discussion.

"What about Petunia, Albus?" asked Mr. Weasley.

But at hearing this Tonks gave a loud cough and the kitchen when silent. And then Dumbledore rounded the corner and came into view.

"Ah, Tonks" Dumbledore said, "did you bring those petunias for me, this place is very dingy without something to liven it up, I thought a couple of flowers could do the trick."

"Oh, yeah" replied Tonks uncertainly "they're in the trunk, didn't want someone to step on them."

Although it was a great impromptu act by Dumbledore Harry didn't buy one word of it.

"OK, if you think for one second that I don't know darn well that you're talking about my aunt you've obviously got some cards missing." Said Harry starting to shout; "I'm old enough so that you don't need to make up dumb excuses for not telling me things. Out with it."

"Harry what I think you need to understand is—"started Dumbledore.

"NO! NOW!" yelled Harry "I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU'VE TREATED ME LIKE A BABY FOR THE PAST FIFTEEN YEARS NOW TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!"

So much for my new resolve to keep my anger in check, thought Harry. But right now he didn't really care. Much to Tonks's surprise and Harry's own Dumbledore answered in his calm and secure voice.

"Fine Harry, I can understand where your anger is coming from," he said. Harry was sure he wasn't sure where his anger was coming from but he wasn't going to argue in case Dumbledore changed him mind, "Come with me into the kitchen we have a lunch waiting there and I will tell you what you wish to know."

Harry followed him cautiously into the kitchen with Tonks tailing him.

Harry entered the kitchen behind Dumbledore to see a slightly pale-faced Arthur Weasley watching the situation unfold cautiously. Dumbledore waved his hand in the direction of a chair on the opposite side of the table from him. "Sit" he said.

Harry moved and took the chair and waited intently. Dumbledore seemed to be considering something then continued on.

"You are well aware I am sure that your aunt knows more of the wizarding world than she lets on, correct?" started Dumbledore, Harry nodded and he continued on, "She was your mothers sister but has she ever told you of her sister Myrtle?"

"No" replied Harry, "I have never heard of that sister"

"She too was a witch Harry. She was eight years older than you aunt. Well she too was your aunt but Petunia was the aunt to which I was referring. Anyways, I'm sure you know that a child of muggle parents was killed in the first opening of the chamber that child was Myrtle. You may know her better as 'Moaning Myrtle'. At the time Lily was only in her first year and Petunia was but 9 years old. After that Lily became a great witch and her parents began to play favorites amongst their two remaining children, Lily being the favorite. You aunt grew up loathing magic for it had taken away form her the sister she admired and her parents whom she had loved. It is the reason she hates magic with such passion." Dumbledore took a break and let Harry ask a few questions.

"But what does that have to do with my aunt _now_? And why didn't she have magic as well?" Harry questioned.

"Well the reason behind that is simple. It is a rare occurrence that a muggle couple gives birth to a squibble, very similar to a squib only a squibble cannot see or use anything magical and are almost every bit a muggle. When two of these people or their descendants decide to have a child there is a twenty-five percent chance that the child will be magical. This was the case with your parents and their first two children." was Dumbledore's reply.

"You still haven't answered my question Professor." Said Harry, slightly frustrated.

"It is my intention to tell you but I will wait and tell you and your aunt at the same time. Tonks."

Tonks contorted her face then changed her features to be the most normal possible and changed her hair to blonde. Most likely as to not startle aunt Petunia.

"How has your summer been Harry?" asked Mr.Weasley

"Fine I suppose, not excellent by any means but certainly not the worst I've had to endure with those oafs."

"You should give them the respect they deserve Harry," said Mr.Weasley "they've watched after you for the past fourteen years of your life you should be thankful. Now Harry, coming from someone who lived with muggles I must ask you a question. I was looking through a muggle shopping catalogue and I came across a device called the 'pooper-scooper' could you please tell me the function of a 'pooper-scooper'? There is a wizard who enchanted one to mow his lawn in plain sight of muggles and we need to decide on his punishment."

The question was so absurd that Harry laughed out loud. Just a minute ago they had beendiscusing Harry's aunts past and the topic had suddenly jumped to pooper-scoopers!

"Well when muggles take their dogs for walks and they need to do their business then they can't just use a scourgify so they use a pooper-scooper to pick up the poop." Said Harry through fits of laughter.

Mr.Weasley looked like he wanted to say something more but just then Tonks arrived with a still unconscious floating aunt Petunia.

"Sit her down here" instructed Dumbledore, "I don't want her to wake up to find herself floating"

Tonks moved to obey Dumbledore and set Harry's aunt down on another chair at the table Dumbledore and Harry where seated. For a moment they all sat there. Harry was unsure of what was supposed to happen so he sat patiently. Dumbledore examined aunt Petunia a moment then said "Enervate"

Immediately Harry's aunt shot open her eyes and attempted to bolt but she found that she was stuck firmly to the chair on which she had sat.

"You" was all she could manage and looked menacingly at Dumbledore. Harry was very grateful that looks couldn't kill otherwise Hogwarts would be one headmaster short.

"Sit," said Dumbledore as if she had any choice in the matter, "there are some things which I must tell you."

"You will tell me nothing, after dropping _him _on our doorstep all those years ago" she said, "I'm through with you and you pathetic-"

"Silencio" said Dumbledore calmly, "You will be quite disappointed to discover otherwise. Not only has your involvement _not_ come to an end but you also will be displeased to find that it has only just begun."

He let Petunia squirm for a while then started talking once more as if Petunia was enjoying the conversation. "All those years ago you thought that you had no magic in you but however you where wrong"

Harry sat up straight at this revelation; he had never considered this before a few seconds ago. Surly Hogwarts would have detected his aunt's magic and have sent her a letter much like his own. But why then would she have not gone? Did she ever receive a letter? He saw Dumbledore start to talk once more so he decided to listen in on what he had to say.

"The reason you never received a letter as your sisters did was because you magic is powerful. It hid itself from our magical children radar. But there is something a bit odd about your magic. I'm sure you're aware that your sisters where witches and that Harry is a wizard" said Dumbledore nodding his head towards Harry while maintaining eye contact with Harry's now very shaken aunt, "You are neither a which or a wizard but instead a mage. Very similar to a witch or wizard with two major differences. One being that you don't need to recite the words to perform a spell and the second being that you can do this wandlessly."

Dumbledore pauses again to give time for this to sink in then continued on. "Although this is not what concerns us the most. I have researched the protection given to you by your mother Harry. Petunia, 14 years ago a dark lord presented himself as Lord Voldemort. A prophecy was made concerning Harry and the Dark Lord. Voldemort was only able to hear the beginning of the prophecy and sought out to kill Harry but when he did so his mother protected him giving him a kind of blood protection but it only works with people on her side of the family. The only one remaining is you Petunia. That is why I gave Harry to you. So he was protected from the Dark Lord but a problem has been found with our theory. While Harry remains safe from harm while you are around, you are not.

Aunt Petunia seemed extremely terrified by this and she started mouthing threats to Dumbledore but he continued on with his story.

"So while the Dark Lords death eaters would normally not attack you Petunia, if they discover what I have you will become their main target." He paused looking at the shock reflected on both Harry's and his aunt's faces. He turned to Petunia, "For if you are killed Harry too will die as the killing curse Voldemort cast upon him will be able to affect him with his mothers last relative dead."

"So I only live as long as she does?" asked Harry pointing an accusing finger at his aunt.

"For the moment, yes" replied Dumbledore, "Unless the Dark Lord is vanquished before you aunt dies then you will be freed your bond with her."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He was still very stunned by all that had been told to him in the past few minutes and was hoping that was all Dumbledore had to say. And was relieved when Dumbledore dismissed him from the room while Dumbledore continued his discussion with Petunia. As much as he wanted to hear what was going on down there he had heard enough for today to keep his mind stimulated for a good while.

He sat in his room thinking for a while. He had been dreading this time since summer had started. He knew Ron and Hermione would be arriving shortly since they would want to keep Harry company. They had both sent him brief letters. Hermione's letter went like this.

Dear Harry,

How's your summer been so far? Well I know it's probably not great but try to get the best out of it. I'm sure we'll have you out of there in no time. After the first week of holidays I went to Ron's and we're hoping that you can come by sometime soon. I'm sure you need to talk. Don't dwell on it too long. There's nothing you can do now, it wasn't even your fault anyways. I hope to see you soon!

Love from,

Hermione

While Ron's went like so.

Hey Harry,

How's things with you? My summer's been great. Percy still hasn't come home, thinks he too good for us I guess. Make sure you don't think of unpleasant things too much and think of other stuff like how bad we're going to waste Slytherin in quidditch this year. Keep your spirits up and we'll see you soon!

Ron

He'd also received letters from Ginny, Fred and George, Neville and even Luna. While the letters warmed him they also made him feel guiltier. He was a marked man. But he just couldn't bear to tell them about the prophecy. None of them would understand. He was afraid that he would loose them.

But at the same time he wanted to loose them so that when the time came for him to face the Dark Lord and if he died then nobody would mourn over his death. He kept thinking on this topic for a few more minutes before drifting off for a quick afternoon nap.

When he woke he went downstairs to find that no one was there except Dumbledore who sat patiently at the table with a few papers in front of him. Harry sat down across from him.

"Where's my aunt?" he questioned.

"She is safe." Replied Dumbledore evasively. Harry decided that he wasn't in the mood to argue and left it at that.

"We have some business to attend to at the moment Harry," said Dumbledore, "Sirius's will."

Harry didn't really feel like looking at anything that might remind him of Sirius with his loss still so fresh in his mind but he had no choice really if the Order wanted to continue using Grimauld place as their headquarters. He looked silently at an envelope with his name on front lying on the table; it was clearly in Sirius's handwriting.

Dumbledore followed his gaze and handed Harry the letter. Harry took it wordlessly and shoved it in his pocket. He wasn't in the mood to read it right now.

"Now if you'll just sign here" said Dumbledore pointing to a line on a legal-sized piece of paper. Harry complied and scratched out his signature where Dumbledore had indicated, "and that's all. We've already got Arthur's signature for someone from the ministry and mine as witness" He then wrote his own, neater signature underneath Harry's.

"There," he said looking satisfied, "Now Grimauld place is yours along with Sirius's bike and half of his assets. Now I'm sure there are a few people whom you'd like to see."

Dumbledore sat up and straightened out the papers he'd been looking at and went off to the fireplace. He took a pinch of something that resembled floo powder but was blue in color. He threw it into the fire and said "The Burrow" and promptly stuck his head into the fire.

Harry couldn't hear anything of what Dumbledore said after that but stood around in anticipation of seeing his two best friends again. Wait, his three best friends counting Ginny. After a few moments Dumbledore removed his head from the fire.

"They'll be coming shortly, they simply need to pack their things" said Dumbledore but then more seriously he said, "It is up to you whom you will tell the prophecy to. Tell it to no one if you so desire but you should confide in at least one person. It will take a great load off of your shoulders. But you may do as you wish. I will share the prophecy with no one as long as you wish it so."

"Thanks Professor" said Harry.

"Let's not bother with this 'professor', I'm not your professor and you should address me as my friends do, Albus."

"Sure Professor, er, Albus."

At just that moment several figures emerged from the fireplace. Hermione burst out and ran straight into Harry flinging her suitcase aside and enveloped him in a tight hug.

"Harry! So good to see you. I'm glad they got you out of there sooner this year. It must have been dreadful." Said Hermione.

"I'm glad to see you guys too" said Harry as Ron emerged from the fireplace followed by Ginny. Harry couldn't help but smile at the red tinge that had crept into Ron's cheeks at seeing Hermione hug Harry so warmly.

After Hermione finally let Harry go he walked up to Ron and took his hand and gave him a friendly smack on the arm.

"Good to see you mate" said Ron, "I was thinking about it the other day and I'd be bored silly in a muggle house without being able to use magic."

"You're not the only one" said Harry.

Then he went over to Ginny. He wasn't quite sure how good his relationship was with her so he extended his hand and rested his hand on her shoulder.

"Nice to see you too Ginny" said Harry.

"Well" said Dumbledore with a laugh, "I'll leave you four to yourselves, your parents should be here shortly."

And with that he left the house. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny made their way up the stairs to Ron and Harry's room. And continued their discussion there.

"Harry, you look awful, have those relatives of yours been mistreating you again. You really should eat more." Said Hermione.

"Lay off Hermione, he's had a rough time, he looks fine." said Ron but something in his voice told Harry he looked much worse than fine.

Harry hadn't even looked in a mirror lately since his room at privet drive didn't have one. But if he would have he would have seen a very disheveled boy looking back at him. He hadn't eaten much since Sirius's death and he had only washed his hair once or twice in the last two weeks. Also he'd started growing some sideburns which he had shaved last year at school but had neglected over the summer. The end result was a very rugged look. He made a silent not to clean himself up.

"So Harry, is there anything you want to talk about?" asked Hermione.

"No, is there something you wanted to talk about?" asked Harry.

"No Harry it's just-" started Hermione.

"Oh, so there's something you want _me_ to talk about. Is that it?" asked Harry.

"Harry, you mustn't look at it that way, we all know you need to talk about him and we're just trying to help." replied Hermione.

"Here we go again Hermione, treating Harry like a baby again. He doesn't even know what's good for him so let's make all his decisions for him. He might get a paper cut if we're not too careful. He can't do anything right. He has a 'saving people thing'. Let's tell him what to do so-" Harry argued.

"But Harry-"

"DON'T YOU 'BUT HARRY' ME HERMIONE. I'VE HAD IT WITH YOUR INSISTENT NAGGING, JUST SOD OFF!" shouted Harry.

Harry kicked the chair beside the desk in his room sending it flying into the wall splintering upon contact and spraying all over Ron, who was standing near where the chair hit. Hermione looked absolutely furious whereas Ron was absolutely petrified whilst Ginny remained impassive. Harry walked over to his bed and sat down heavily and put his face in his hands.

"I'm sorry" his voice no more than a whisper, "I shouldn't have exploded like that."

"Harry, I really think it'd do you a load of good to talk about him." pressed Hermione.

"Why? I've got enough on my mind with Voldemort killing people by the dozens. He has to be stopped!" proclaimed Harry.

"I know Harry but you're taking this way to personally. It's not your fault that all of those people are dying. Voldemort and his cowardly death eaters are the only ones to blame for that. Besides there's nothing you could possibly do to save those people anyways." said Hermione.

"Ya, it's not like it's _your _responsibility to take out you-know-who, Dumbledore'll be the one to do it I recon." added Ron.

No sooner than the words had left his mouth Harry started to cry. Not a childish cry more like a sob of some enormous inner pain. Hermione gave Ron a deadly look and Ron went a pale white then she was about to console Harry when Ginny stood up and went to sit on the bed next to Harry and wrapped his arm around him.

"It's alright Harry," said Ginny.

"What if it's not?" asked Harry.

"I'm sure everything will be fine," said Ginny, "We'll give you some time to sort thing out OK?"

Without waiting for an answer she got up and ushered Ron and Hermione out the door. Harry was very grateful for this act and flopped onto his bed to sort things out. They could be so ignorant sometimes. It _was _his responsibility to kill Voldemort. He really wanted them to know the prophecy but he just couldn't bring himself to tell them.

And then there was the matter of Sirius. He wasn't quite sure how he stood on the matter. A small chunk of him was still unwilling to admit that he was really gone but the rest of him knew better. He'd have to talk about it eventually but he'd be willing to put that off for as long as possible. He wasn't quite sure why he didn't want to talk about him. Sirius had died with honor, in battle. Harry knew it was how he would have liked to go but it still didn't make it any easier.


	2. A New Order Member

Chapter 2: A New Order Member

Harry was aroused from his thoughts by a knock on his door.

"Time for supper mate." said Ron through the door.

Harry waited till he heard Ron's footsteps die away before lifting himself from his bed and slowly walking downstairs. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to face his friends but he couldn't pass up one of Mrs.Weasley's homemade suppers.

As he entered the kitchen he noticed that everyone seemed tense and slipping him glances every time they thought that he wasn't looking. In attendance where Mr. and Mrs.Weasley, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George and Bill. Charlie apparently was still in Romania.

After a warm welcome from the Weasleys and a bear hug from Mrs.Weasley supper began. Conversation was dull if not non-existent. Mrs.Weasley seemed to have said something to them earlier because every time Fred or George looked like they wanted to ask Harry something she gave them a stern look and they quickly closed their mouths.

After about 30 minutes Harry pushed his plate away. Everyone else was still in the middle of his or her dinners.

"Eat up Harry, you've got some weight to get back" said Mrs.Weasley.

"I'm not hungry," said Harry.

"Blimey, what's wrong with you Harry," said Ron, "I eat all I can get my hand on and I can't even remember the last time I was hungry!"

Mrs.Weasley shot Ron a look but returned her gaze to Harry and opened her mouth but it was not her that spoke.

"You need to eat Harry," said Ginny matter of factly, "you've got to be strong for what lies ahead."

Mrs.Weasley rounded on her daughter and was about to say something when Harry said, "I suppose you're right." Her expression then softened and she instead smiled at Ginny.

The rest of the meal passed uneventfully until its completion. Mrs.Weasley shooed Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny upstairs since an order meeting was to be held. Fred and George couldn't resist sticking their tongue out at the four younger children as they had now been admitted into the order.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" grumbled Ron, "With Fred and George in the order we've got no extendable ears to listen in on the meetings."

"Ron, we're not supposed to know what's going on in those meetings anyways" said Hermione.

"I know but I don't see why we shouldn't"

"Really Ron, sometimes I wonder about you."

Sensing an impending row Harry quickly changed topic.

"Who do you suppose will be defense teacher this year?" he blurted.

"I've been wondering that myself Harry," said Hermione, "I'm sure that after the last six years their list of willing candidates is running thin."

"You can say that again!" said Ron, "You'd have to pay me double the salary to take that position!"

Harry nodded in agreement.

"What's been going on in the Wizarding world since two weeks ago? I didn't get the prophet this summer." asked Harry.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny exchanged a glance.

"It hasn't been pretty Harry," said Ginny, "You know how you-know-who likes to-"

"Hold on Ginny" said Harry, "Do I know this 'you-know-who' guy? He sounds familiar somehow. Does he have any other names?"

Harry knew perfectly well Ginny was talking about Voldemort but he wanted his friends to be able to say his real name.

"Well you know how, how, how he-who-must-not-be-named likes to-" started Ginny.

"VOLDEMORT!" shouted Harry.

When Ginny did nothing he yelled again, louder this time.

"SAY VOLDEMORT!" yelled Harry but Ginny still did not speak, in fact she was looking absolutely petrified, "SAY IT!"

Harry was standing now advancing slowly on Ginny. Hermione was looking at Harry with frightened eyes; Ron was to but nudged his sister as if to say 'do it'.

"SAY VOLDEMORT!" shouted Harry, "FEAR OF A NAME IS FEAR OF THE THING ITSELF! NOW SAY IT!"

Hermione straightened at Harry's words since it had been her who had said that 'to live in fear of a name is to increase the fear of the thing itself'. She was one of the few who talked about Voldemort with his real name. Or his self-given name actually. But she quickly returned her focus to the situation at hand.

Ginny opened her mouth and started to speak, "H-H-Harry I…" said Ginny trailing off into silence.

Harry seemed to have regained his composure now and was looking at Ginny with and oddly sad expression on his face. "I'm disappointed in you Ginny." he said after a minute, "I thought you where stronger than that." And with that he turned and walked out of the room that Hermione and Ginny share and back to his and Ron's.

As soon as he had closed the door Ginny broke down and started crying. Hermione rushed over to her and hugged her.

"Don't worry about it Ginny. Harry gets a little worked up sometimes. You didn't do anything wrong"

But for some reason she couldn't shake the feeling that Hermione was wrong. She wasn't brave enough to stand up to her fears when confronted with them. She was weak. She had wanted desperately to say 'Voldemort' a few seconds ago but she had not. She wished she could be more like Harry. Harry wasn't afraid of anything.

Finally she stood and walked out the door. And left Hermione and Ron staring after her. Hermione wondering what she planned to do and Ron muttering something about how Harry was off his rocker.

Harry sat on his bed in thinking for the third time that day. Why wouldn't people understand? Voldemort wasn't unstoppable. He was just a normal person who underwent a magical transformation. Why didn't people call Dumbledore 'you-know-who'? He was just as powerful as Voldemort.

At that same moment Ginny was standing outside his door composing herself for what she was about to do. She took a deep breath and knocked.

"Harry?"

"What do you want?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

When there was no response she opened the door and stepped into Harry and Ron's room. Harry was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. Ginny went and sat down beside him.

"Harry, I'm sorry," said Ginny simply.

"Sorry for what?" asked Harry.

"Sorry that I let you down," replied Ginny downcast, "I wish that I could be more like you sometimes."

Harry grumbled something inaudible.

"What?" asked Ginny.

"Nothing, I was just talking to myself."

"I have a feeling you weren't"

"Well, you know how last year at the Department- oh, what am I saying, you don't need to know!"

"Harry we're here to help you," said Ginny flatly, "Don't try to shy away from us. You're bound to us whether you like it or not."

At this statement Harry sat up beside Ginny.

"Ginny?" said Harry.

"Yes Harry?"

"I meant to tell you earlier but thanks for giving me some time to think earlier."

"No problem Harry, I know how those two can be sometimes." she smiled at him.

Harry just couldn't take the guilt he felt anymore after she smiled. He started crying for the second time that day. Ginny was surprised at this but hugged him tightly all the same. Before Harry had cut his tears short in front of his friends but now for some reason he didn't seem to care. He let it all out.

"I'm sorry Ginny, I didn't mean to yell," he said in between gasps, "I know you guys are only trying to help it's just sometimes I loose sight of that."

"It's alright now Harry, nothing to worry about. Why don't you get some rest?"

Slowly she lay Harry down on his bed and lay his covers on him. He closed his eyes. Satisfied Ginny got up and left and was about to leave when she heard Harry's voice.

"Ginny?" he said.

"Yes Harry?"

"I forgive you for not saying his name."

"Thank you Harry" she smiled and closed the door. She wouldn't tell anyone but she was very relieved that Harry had forgiven her. She wasn't quite sure why but she needed Harry to view her as a strong individual. She wasn't sure whether she had something to prove to herself or to someone else but it made her feel proud to have Harry's forgiveness and she vowed that the next time she saw him that she would say Voldemort to him.

Harry fell asleep not long after Ginny left him. He never heard Ron come in and fall asleep in his own bed.

The next morning Harry awoke bright and early seeing as he had gone to bed at eight thirty. It was not a surprise to him that Ron was still sprawled about in his bed making Zs. He decided that now that he was up he might as well get dressed and head downstairs and start cleaning up this dump.

He walked downstairs and the kitchen clock showed that it was 7 o' clock. He was sure nobody would be up for awhile. He knew he would be too hungry by the time everyone else got up so he decided to make himself some breakfast. Just as he was about to start he heard a tapping on the back door. He grabbed his wand with lightning quick seekers reflexes and started cautiously towards the door.

He approached the corner to the door and slowly stuck his head around the corner. He laughed. It was only an owl come to deliver the daily prophet. His nerves seemed to be on edge lately. He opened the door and the owl dropped the paper in Harry's hand. Harry found a bag beside the door filled with wizard coins and reached inside and flipped one to the owl who had delivered his paper. The owl caught it deftly then hooted in thanks and flapped out the door once more.

Harry shut and locked the door and went into the living area. He abandoned his plan for breakfast and decided to read the paper instead. There wasn't too much of interest. Apparently there had been only one attack by the death eaters in the last couple of weeks. The paper claimed that they had been recouping after their loss at the Department of Mysteries.

The only large attack had been on a small muggle town about 40 kilometers outside of Little Whining. The only alarming thing about the attack was that at least 30 people where dead and 89 more where injured. But it didn't end there. The muggle government was suspicious of the attack and suspected some type of terrorism and where investigation the means that the 'terrorists' had used to kill so many with an 'odd green stream of light' according to one muggle.

Someone clearing their throat interrupted Harry from his thoughts. He whirled around half expecting to see his old professor Dolores Umbridge. He was quite relieved to see Ginny instead. She had an uncanny ability to produce an amazingly accurate Umbridge 'Hem Hem'.

"I wasn't expecting to see anyone up this early," said Harry.

"Nor was I," replied Ginny equally.

"Sit down," said Harry indicating a chair opposite him, "I've read the paper this morning so I'm all caught up in what Voldemort has been doing."

Ginny looked grave, "You haven't heard _all _that he's been up to. Some things don't appear in newspapers."

"Like what?" asked Harry gulping.

"Like his attempted assassination on Dawlish," said Ginny, "It's been kept all hushed up. Dumbledore thinks that if Fudge is ever thrown out that Dawlish is a popular alternative amongst the others in the Ministry and being an order member Voldemort wouldn't like him being the Minister of Magic should Fudge be removed."

Harry stood up and walked to the chair Ginny was occupying and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Ginny," he said, "I'm proud of you." Ginny blushed slightly at the praise. She'd been preparing herself to say Voldemort in front of him all night and she was delighted at the praise that Harry had given her. He gave her shoulder a squeeze, "Now I'm going to see about some breakfast. You hungry?"

Ginny nodded, got up and followed Harry into the kitchen.

"That was a very nice of the two of you to make breakfast for the rest of us," said Mrs.Weasley after she finished her breakfast, courtesy of Harry and Ginny, "I have to admit it was nice not to have to cook for a change."

"Oh, it was nothing Mrs.Weasley," said Harry, "We where up and about so we decided to do something productive."

"Well I'm glad you did. Now since there is nothing else really that you are able to do, why don't the four of you work on your homework this morning and in the afternoon you can continue cleaning up this place." Said Mrs.Weasley.

Everyone gave a good-natured groan before trudging upstairs to do his or her homework. With the exception of Hermione who darted to the stairs and took them in leaps of three.

"Nutty, that one," commented Ron, "I wish I could be that enthusiastic about my homework. Then I'd never have to worry about deadlines."

"You _really _wish that you where that enthusiastic about homework?" asked Ginny.

"Well, no, not really," said Ron, "Just wanted to make a point."

The four entered Ron and Harry's room and set up some desks so that they could all be facing one another and started doing their homework. Two feet of parchment later Harry had had enough.

"If I write anymore then my wand hand's going to fall off," said Harry, "And then who'd beat …" Harry stopped as he realized what he'd been about to say. He quickly changed topics, "What's that you're working on Hermione?"

But Hermione didn't answer him. He noticed that Ron and Ginny where also giving him a funny look.

"What?" he asked.

"You where saying Harry." Said Hermione.

"Nothing," said Harry a little too quickly, "I was just mumbling on about stuff. Hey Ron, is your arm alright after that brain attacked it?"

"Oh ya," said Ron looking down at his arm, "It's fine. But there's something strange happening since it attacked me though."

"What?" asked Harry, glad that he had sidestepped that bullet.

"How about this," said Ron very business like, "We all tell you one of our secrets and you tell us what you where about to say." Ron folded his arms and sat back in his chair looking very smug indeed. Hermione shot him an approving look but then quickly returned her attention to Harry."

"Look guys, it's not that simple, this is something big!" said Harry pleadingly.

"How about this then," said Hermione, "Ron will tell you about the brains, I'll tell you about, um, what could I tell him?"

"You could tell him which boy you like," said Ron blushing slightly.

"No, that will never do," said Hermione briskly, "Hmm, I know! I'll tell him about his family." Harry coulnd't know what Hermione knew about his family that he didn't but he decided that that one might be worth finding out.

"I don't have much to tell but I could tell you something that would make you laugh every time you think about it."

"Fine," said Harry, "But you must promise that what I say doesn't leave this room and you all have to go first."

"Sure," said Hermione, "I'll start"

"Hold that thought," said Harry. And he got up and went for the door. Hermione thought that he was going to make a dash for it but instead reached down and picked up a pair of extendable ears.

"HELLO! ANYBODY HOME! NICE DAY FOR SPYING ON OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS ISN'T IT?" shouted Harry into the ears then gave them a tug and pulled the rest of the ears into the room. The scurry of feet on the stairs could be heard shortly after.

"Continue," he said simply.

"Well, last year I spent a few hours reading about your family Harry" said Hermione, "What I found was rather interesting. One of your distant grandfathers. I can't remember exactly how many 'great's are attached to that but anyways one of them, Hephestieus Regliez, was a headmaster of Hogwarts. I found that his mother's maiden name was Merlin. When I traced the father's lineage back I found that his great-great-great-great-grandmother's maiden name was Gryffindor. Needless to say she was a descendant of Godric himself."

"Wow," said Harry, "So, I'm Merlin _and _Gryffindor's heir?"

"Well," said Hermione hesitantly, "You aren't Merlin's most direct descendant."

"Who is?" asked Harry, "Do I know of him?"

"Not only do you know _of _him. You know him. It's professor Snape."

"What?" exclaimed Ron, "That git is the heir of Merlin? Does he even know?"

"I'm not sure but I know that you should refer to him as professor Snape not 'that git'."

"Oh, come on Hermione, everyone was thinking it, I'm just the only one who said it."

"Why don't you tell us about the brains now Ron?" asked Harry sensing another impending row.

"Oh ya sure, well what happened was after I recovered I realized that I knew things that I didn't know before. Somehow I knew everything about the 15 uses of unicorn hair. I never knew that before and somehow I was able to write a whole 4 feet of parchment about it today. It's like the brains knowledge passed into me. Although I don't know anything about how to act in real life or anything like that. All I've got is knowledge so my ability to perform spells remains the same," said Ron, "I can imagine it will come in handy come exam time!"

Hermione looked appalled while Ginny and Harry looked at Ron enviously.

"Well that's not so bad then is it mate?" Harry said this more as a statement than a question.

"Nope, not bad at all."

"Okay, your turn Ginny." Said Hermione.

"Alright here goes. I kissed Dean," she said simply.

"You _WHAT_?" asked Ron fuming, "THE NEXT TIME I SEE THAT SCUMBAG I'LL GIVE HIM A PIECE OF MY MIND AND MY FIST AND IF YOU THINK THAT I'LL-"

"RON!" shouted Ginny and then she started giggling, "I was only kidding, I never even went out with him. I just said it to see your reaction."

As much as he tried to stop it Harry burst out laughing. Hermione tried to hide her smile behind her hand but it was quite apparent. Even Ron saw the humor behind the joke and joined in the laughter.

"Okay Harry, now you tell us what you where about to say," said Hermione, immediately the laughter stopped.

"Fine, this is it. You know the prophecy we got at the Department of Mysteries right?" started Harry, everyone nodded and he continued on, "It was destroyed. But the thing I found out is that it was only a recording of the prophecy, not the prophecy itself. There were only two people present when the prophecy was said for the first time. Those two people where one of Voldemort's spies and Dumbledore and so Dumbledore told me."

"So then Dumbledore and Voldemort already know what the prophecy says? And who was the person who recited the prophecy for the first time?" asked Hermione hurriedly.

"Well Dumbledore knew the entire thing but Voldemort's spy only heard the beginning. And the person who said it was Sybil Trelawny."

"That old coot, she's been prediction that you will die tomorrow for almost three years! How can you trust what she said is true?" asked Ron unbelievingly.

"Sometimes seers will start reciting a prophecy without even knowing what they're doing and they have an ethereal voice as they say it and they won't even remember a word of it once they're done," Harry got up, "Well time for lunch I should say."

"Harry," said Ginny gently, "You still haven't told us what the prophecy."

"Oh," said Harry nervously, "right you are. Well it wasn't dreadfully interesting so I'll sum it up. It said some stuff about me and some other stuff about Voldemort and some stuff about both of us." Harry saw that everyone was still waiting for him to say what the prophecy really said. "Alright, alright! Here's exactly what it said. I've memorized it from thinking about it so often. It goes like this: 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches … born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies … ' "

They where all silent. Ginny and Hermione looked at Harry in horror as Ron counted to seven on his fingers mouthing the months as he went then as he reached the seventh he looked up at Harry with a look of dumb terror on his face.

"What I was going to say was that if I wrote anymore my wand hand would fall off. Then who would beat Voldemort? Well I'm still hungry so I'm heading down for some lunch."

And with that Harry rushed out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen and he left his three friends staring at the door which he had left just moments earlier.

"That _was _big." Managed Ron.

Lunch was relatively quiet considering that there where nine people present. Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny where thinking about the prophecy, Fred and George seemed to be hatching a plan of some sort and Bill and Mrs. and Mr.Weasley ate their lunch in silence.

After lunch was over Mrs.Weasley assigned the four friends to clean up another room in the house. Harry wasn't excited about spending time with his friends to whom he'd just told the prophecy.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" asked Hermione once they were in the room they were assigned to clean.

"Because I thought you would overreact!" said Harry tiredly, "Looks like I was correct in my assumption!"

"Really Harry, there's no reason why you shouldn't have told us. We're your friends and we'll stick by you 'till the bitter end even if it means becoming a murderer." Said Ginny comfortingly. Both Ron and Hermione nodded their heads in agreement.

"Even if I wind up dead?"

There was an awkward silence that followed until Ron decided to say something to cut the tension.

"Sure mate! If I know you you'll give it all you've got and poor you-know-who, er, V, Vol, Volde, Voldemor, Voldemort," he let out a breath as he finally said Voldemort, "a run for his money. You can win this thing Harry."

Harry let Ron's words sink in before speaking. He realized then that he had some of the best friends one could hope for.

"Thanks guys, I should have known that you'd all be there for me but I didn't want to tell you for another reason too. Voldemort will probably want to get to anyone who knows the contents of the prophecy, that's you guys. I just don't want you guys getting hurt because of me."

"Don't worry we love you too much to let you live your life in loneliness." Ginny said blushing as she said it. Harry seemed too deep in thought to notice though, "We'll always stand by you Harry, don't worry about that."

"Don't worry about it at all Harry. What will come will come but for now why not have a little fun, live for the moment." Added Hermione.

"I'll try my best and sorry about yesterday, I didn't mean to yell like that." Said Harry.

"No harm done," said Ron reassuringly, "We're one chair short now but I'm sure we'll manage.

After the four had finished cleaning out the room Harry and Ron went off to play a few games of wizard chess while Ginny and Hermione had some 'girl talk'.

"I just don't get it," said Ron in bewilderment, "Why do they need to have these 'girl talks all the time?"

"I don't know I guess it's kind of the same thing as 'bloke time' but to be honest with you I'm not entirely sure. All they do is talk, at least we play wizard chess or something of the sort."

"Well mate, I've said it before and I'll say it again. As long as I live I'll never understand girls."

Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?" asked Ginny as she strode into the room.

"You wouldn't get it. It's a bloke thing." Said Ron.

"Your move," Harry said to Ron. He could sense the Weasley temper getting ready to flare.

"Check mate" proclaimed Ron proudly.

"I don't think I've beaten you in at least 50 consecutive matches," said Harry exasperated, "I don't know why I didn't give up long ago."

"Because someday when I'm half-asleep and you get a few breaks you might just manage to come close to beating me."

"I could help you next time you play," volunteered Ginny, "chess playing runs in our family and I'm nearly as good as Ron. Perhaps together we could beat that brother of mine."

"Sounds like a plan," said Harry grinning. He extended his hand and Ginny took it. He liked the feel of her hand in his. After a minute he let go but found that his hand was still being held by Ginny's.

He looked up at her then down at his hand. She seemed to be in a trance of some sort but then she shook her head and was out of it.

"Oh, sorry," she said blushing furiously.

"No that's fine," said Harry, "I-"

He was spared having to think up something to say by a loud thump on the window. The four adolescents rushed to the window to see what had made the sound and saw an owl lying on the ground outside. They rushed quickly down the stairs and Ron went out to retrieve the owl. It didn't look to seriously injured. Except for the fact that it's left wing seemed to be bent oddly.

"What was that?" asked Mrs.Weasley coming down the hall from the kitchen, "Oh dear!" she said after she saw the hurt owl in Ron's hands, "bring it into the kitchen and we'll see if we can fix him up."  
  
Ron followed his mother into the kitchen where he gently laid the owl on the table. The bird hopped over to the edge of the table and looked down at the floor then at Ron. Then back at the floor then Ron again.

"I think it wants you to put it on the floor Ron." Said Hermione.

Ron reached forward and carefully put the owl on the floor. No sooner had he done it than the owl quickly changed into a human who turned out to be the auror Dawlish.

"Dawlish!" said Mrs.Weasley, "I didn't know that you where an animagus."

"You never asked," said the auror with a grin. He started to walk but stopped wincing, "You think you could do something about this arm?"

"Oh, most certainly Dawlish be back in a minute," said Mrs.Weasley rushed off to get her first aid kit.

"Now Harry," said Dawlish, "My animagus form isn't an owl for nothing, I've brought you a letter from Dumbledore himself."

"But Dumbledore was here yesterday. Why didn't he just tell me then?"

"He said you'd had enough to fill your brain with the other day and also something had just come up and he had no way of knowing yesterday."

"Well I've said my bit," said Dawlish, "Could I borrow your bed Harry, my arms are awfully sore."

"Sure," said Harry laughing, "I'll tell Mrs.Weasley where you've gone to."

Dawlish nodded his thanks and started walking up the stairs to Harry and Ron's room.

"Go on, open it," urged Hermione.

Harry looked the letter over before breaking the Hogwarts seal on the back of the letter and pulling out its contents. Inside he found three pieces of parchment with Dumbledore's writing on it, one with the information about the money transfer from Sirius's account to his own. The third item was a small wallet. Harry looked at this first.

Inside he found a compartment for coins that looked like it was larger than it should be but if they could fit a house in a tent they could certainly handle this. But that wasn't the only remarkable thing inside the wallet was there was some cards in it. The first was his Wizard identification card. It had his name, place of birth, parents, date of birth, his wizard number and many other things as well with his picture smiling up at him in the top left corner.

The second card startled him a bit, it was an apparation license. He supposed that the ministry had finally gotten wind of the prophecy and decided that him learning to apparate would be a good idea. But the third card surprised Harry the most.

"Oh, my," he head Hermione say from behind him while Ron said something along the lines of 'Blimey'. Ginny remained silent.


	3. Expect the Unexpected

Chapter 3: Expect the Unexpected

Harry looked at the card before him in bewilderment. An 'implantant' card. He'd never heard of one of these before but by the sounds of it Ron and Hermione had. To be honest it sounded painful but he wasn't quite sure what it was so he decided to ask Ron.

"So, what exactly is an 'implantant'?"

"There aren't very many of them, none right now. In fact you have to get ministry approval before you can become one and you'd have to be rich because even after the ministry approves it still costs more than most people have."

"So what is it?" asked Harry again.

"Well, they do it for people that show an aptitude for wandless magic. What they do it they take your wand and another just like it and they take out whatever you have inside. Then they cut open your arm all the way down to your wrist. To the bone. Then they put your wand core inside your forearm bone with all your marrow and then they stitch you up. When they're done you can do wandless magic and your spells become more powerful. There's only one person in all of Great Britain, no, the world, that can do it though."

"Who's that?" asked Harry, silently hoping that it wasn't Snape.

"Gregory Simonsfield." Answered Hermione as Ron muttered something along the lines of know it all.

"Hmm. I wonder why they want me to become an implantant?" pondered Harry out loud.

"Well it's obvious, Harry," said Ginny, "you need to get Voldemort in the end and if it makes your magic any better then why not do it, I'm sure Dumbledore got it for you. It's the fact that Fudge actually agreed to let you become one that surprises me the most, especially without knowing that you'll be the one to take out Voldemort. You know how he can be sometimes."

"I know how he can be all the time," replied Harry, beaming at Ginny's use of Voldemort's name twice "I guess if Dumbledore thought it best then the ministry decided that they'd be best off without arguing with him.

"Yeah, I guess."

"I've got a better way to find out what Dumbledore was thinking!" said Ron.

"What?" asked Hermione quickly.

"Why don't we read that letter that he sent along with the package?" asked Ron.

"Oh," said Hermione, a little put out that she didn't give the answer herself, "I thought you meant a way to tell what Dumbledore was thinking now. If I would have known what you where talking about I could have told you that."

"You're just jealous because someone's smarter than you for once after I got attacked by those brain."

"I am not. In fact I don't know if those brains really did make you smarter since you even thought for a moment that I was jealous of someone as pitiful as yourself."

"I'm pretty sure with a face as ugly as yours I'm sure you're jealous every time you see another girl."

Hermione looked like she was ready to cry but Harry spared her the embarrassment by starting to read his letter:

Dear Harry,

I'm sorry that I could not give this to you in person but under the circumstances I'm sure you'd understand. You may have already looked at your new wallet. If you have not I suggest that you do now since I am about to explain it's contents. The first card is your apparation license. I talked to the minister and he agreed to give you your apparation license to you on your 16th birthday rather than your 17th. I assure you that he does not know of your situation (prophecy). As to the Animagus card well I talked to the person in charge of Animagus registry and she said that although you need to be eighteen to become an animagus she believed that you where ready for the challenge. Needless to say it was Professor McGonagall. As to the last card. I'm not sure if you know quite what an implantant is as they are so rare. Right now there are no living implantants. An implantant is essentially someone who can do magic without a wand in their hand but they have a wand core implanted in each arm. Only wizards who are good at using wandless magic are given this opportunity and you have proven that you are able to do wandless magic many times before. As soon as you get to school you will commence a rigorous training routine. To help you prepare as much as possible for the final confrontation, whenever that will be. Professor McGonagall will be teaching you to become an animagus as well as how to apparate. Professor Snape will continue his occlumency. I know that this news will not thrill you but it is necessary that you learn to become an occlumen and Professor Snape is very advanced in this field. I have asked Professor Moody to return to teach you proper dueling techniques and defense. I'm sure you're dying to find out who the new defense teacher will be but I'll hold the suspense and you can wait till the first day of classes. You will begin many more extra-curricular classes but I will tell you about them myself for as soon as you read my name I will appear before you.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

No sooner had Harry read these words than Dumbledore arrived, exactly as promised.

"Well, that was unexpected," commented Harry.

"You should begin to expect the unexpected Harry, these are dark times," said Dumbledore.

"Then you ask me to do the impossible Albus," said Harry, "to expect the unexpected is impossible. For if I'm expecting something then it's no longer unexpected. Therefore it is quite impossible to expect the unexpected but I will make an effort to expect more things to cut down on the unexpected."

Dumbledore looked as if he might reprimand Harry until he burst out laughing that it.

"Quite right you are Harry," laughed Dumbledore, "after all these many years my wits are not always about me. But now on to more serious matters."

Dumbledore moved over to take a seat beside the four teenagers.

"I mustn't stay long. If I had had the time I would have told you all that was in the letter to you myself. Harry I have something for you that was too valuable to have taken by an owl. Even if he was an auror and a member of the Order."

Dumbledore reached within his robes and pulled out a long thing wrapped in burlap. He reached out and handed it to Harry who took it hesitantly. Harry lifted up one end of the burlap and looked inside. What was inside made him gasp. It was the sword of Godric Gryffindor. He looked up at Dumbledore and removed the sword completely. Both Hermione and Ron gasped. Ginny just stared at it. It was the sword that Harry had saved her from the chamber of secrets with.

"I'm not sure if you know this but it is part of you heritage." Explained Dumbledore.

"Y-yeah, Hermione told me. But I never even thought about having a magic thousand year old sword before."

"I would imagine not. It is not what most people wish for."

"Is there anything else which you wish to tell me, Albus?"

"No I think not, in fact I was just attending a staff meeting. If it's fine with you I think I'll be leaving now."

And with that he disapparated out of sight. Just outside the school grounds no doubt since there was no apparating inside of Hogwarts.

"Well, that didn't tell us much that we didn't know," said Hermione unhappily.

"I thought that the discussion went rather well," said Harry.

"What discussion?" asked Hermione, "All you did was joked a bit and then he left after giving you the sword."

"But you see, last time we didn't part on very good terms. In fact a couple of weeks ago I kind of trashed his office. Broke some priceless items and stuff." Said Harry looking at his feet.

"You, _what_? You've really got to work on that temper of yours," said Ginny.

"Well enough of that," said Ron, much to Harry's delight, "Why don't we go finish up our homework."

So the four trudged upstairs, pranced in the case of Hermione, to do their homework.

The next few days passed somewhat uneventfully until the third Monday of the holidays. Harry was sitting on his bed facing Ron in a match of wizard's chess with Ginny's aid. All of a sudden he felt a large pain in his chest and he cried out in agony. Ron and Ginny both looked at him for a minute then returned to the game. They seemed to think that Harry had cried out because his queen had been taken.

He couldn't breath he couldn't talk. Soon Ron and Ginny noticed something was wrong and rushed over to him.

"Harry, can you breath?" asked Ron franticly.

Harry shook his head violently and struggled for air. He was sure he was going to pass out.

"Ron, do the unchoking charm!" Ginny cried.

"I can't do magic in the summer and I forgot how it goes!" yelled back Ron.

"Do the muggles Heimlich then!" said Ginny pleadingly.

Ron stood Harry up hastily and proceeded to do the Heimlich maneuver. But when nothing happened after three tried then he gave up.

"He's not choking Gin! He just needs air!"

"Then give him mouth-to-mouth!"

"I'm not kissing my best mate!" cried Ron.

Ginny looked around franticly for a few moments then decided that it was the best course of action. She summoned all her courage to her and took a deep breath. She pinched Harry's nose shut and pressed her lips against his. Not quite the first kiss she'd been hoping for but it was that or she was down a friend. She blew into Harry's lungs and removed her lips. She then pressed down on his chest and felt the air blow out onto her. Then she gave him air again.

Harry started to fall into darkness. He felt someone squeeze his stomach several times and let him fall to the floor. Then he felt someone plant their lips on his own and breath air into his lungs. He felt himself coming back. Then he breathed out and in and out and in and out. Soon enough he was breathing normally and he opened his eyes. He looked up into the faces of Ginny and Ron.

As soon as he opened his eyes Ginny backed off blushing furiously and she ran upstairs to her room. Ron just looked after her then turned his attention to Harry.

"You all right mate?" he asked, "Just about suffocated you did!"

"Yeah," said Harry slowly sitting back down onto the couch, "fine except for my gut is aching."

A few seconds later Dumbledore came rushing out of the fireplace.

"Harry?" he said with a look of concern on his face, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Albus. I just got the breath take away from me it seems. How did you know I wasn't well?"

"Your aunt tried to escape today and we had Kingsley on duty. She took his wand so he used muggle means to subdue her. Unfortunately Kingsley it a big man and he packs quite a punch!" said Dumbledore chuckling, "He winded your aunt and then returned her breath to her with a simple charm. He then notified me and I came straight here. It seems you have remembered your breathing charm Ron."

"Er, well actually, sir-" started Ron.

"Like I told Harry," Dumbledore interjected, "call me Albus."

"Sure, well I actually didn't remember that charm but luckily Ginny remembered the muggles 'mouth-to-mouth,'" replied Ron.

"Ah, well that works too," said Dumbledore looking at Harry playfully, "Perhaps even better. Well, I should be off. I'm at another meeting with your parents and the twins. You never seem to get into trouble at the convenient moment."

And with a wave he was gone again.

Just after Dumbledore had left Harry went straight to Ginny's room. He told Ron he'd be right back and went up the stairs to Ginny's room. He knocked softly on the door. When he heard no reply he knocked a little louder.

"Ginny?" he asked.

"I'm fine Harry, go finish that game of wizards chess with Ron."

"Ginny, I just wanted to thank you," said Harry seriously, "Dumbledore said that you may very well have saved my life just now."

Ginny remained silent for a while.

"What's wrong Ginny?"

When again he heard no reply he entered her room. He found Ginny sitting on the edge of her bed crying softly. Harry went over and sat down beside her and went to put his arm around her.

"Leave me alone!" said Ginny pulling away from Harry, "Don't go putting your nose where it doesn't belong. I said leave, now go!"

Harry stared at Ginny for a moment before obliging. When he got to the door he turned around.

"Ginny, I was just trying to thank you for-" but he didn't get to finish before she slammed the door in his face.

Harry walked downstairs at a slow pace and entered the living room and flopped down on the couch across from Ron.

"What's gotten in to her?" he asked Ron.

"To answer your question with another; who knows?" said Ron testing out some of his new found wisdom, "I'd leave her alone for a while if I where you, you don't want to get on the wrong side of the Weasley temper now do you."

"No, you can say that again. But still I wonder what's gotten into her, I mean why is she angry at me for trying to thank her?"

"You know I don't understand how girls work, you might as well ask me what boomslang skin is used for!"

"Then I believe I can help you," said Hermione from the doorway, "I know the answer to both your questions."

"You can skip the boomslang thing," said Harry quickly.

"Of course," said Hermione moving to sit beside Ron and across from Harry, "The reason behind Ginny's anger towards you is simple. She always had a crush on you right Harry?"

"Yeah, I guess so but that was when she was 10 and didn't know any better."

"Yes but she never forgot and he brothers didn't either so she's sure that he brothers are now going to tease her since she 'kissed' you."

"No she didn't saved my life is all she did. And where were you?"

"Oh, I was outside in the back yard, er, weeding. Took me awhile to fit through the slightly open window to get in here. I heard the whole thing though. Oh, and the reason why she doesn't want you to talk to her is so that she seems not to be attached to you so her brothers don't tease her. We'll talk to all of them before they see her but I'm not so sure if the twins will pass up an opportunity like this to poke fun at her."

"Oh, I'll see to it they don't" said Harry pounding his fist into his palm"

That night at supper all of the Weasleys where in attendance with the exception of Charlie. All of the Weasleys had been informed of what happened and had been told not to poke fun at Ginny. The twins agreed but only after Harry threatened to pull their funding.

Supper passed uneventfully, all of the Weasleys complimented Ginny for saving Harry's life. Every time Harry would smile at her and she seemed to perk up a bit.

After supper Harry went upstairs to get his broom so that he could play a game of quidditch with Ron, Bill and the twins. Since no muggles could see or hear the entire yard they where at no risk playing quidditch out in the open. And since Harry had gotten back the right to play quidditch, in one of the papers Dumbledore had sent him, he couldn't wait for his first game in almost a year.

As he walked upstairs he walked past Ginny's room.

"Harry?" he heard from within.

He walked back to the door and looked in, as the door was ajar. Ginny was once again sitting on her bed, not crying this time though.

"Yeah, Gin?" said Harry hesitantly.

"Um, I'd like to apologize for yelling at you earlier I was just, er, a little embarrassed."

"No need, Ginny. It's me who should be thanking you, you saved my life you know."

He walked over and helped Ginny up and pulled her into a warm embrace.

"You up for some quidditch? We've got a game about to start."

Ginny grinned up at him.

"What are you waiting for," said Harry, "Go grab your broom."

Harry left her then and went to retrieve his own broom from his closed upstairs. Dumbledore had placed it there for him.

The quidditch game went well. Since they only had 6 players they had only three hoops and one keeper and one beater. Ron played keeper and Fred played beater. Harry and George where on a team against Ginny and Charlie and the four played chasers.

Harry was an okay chaser and George proved to be one of the worst chasers Harry had ever seen. They lost hands down to Ginny, who was actually a quite talented chaser and Charlie who had played keeper as well but was a decent enough chaser.

By the time the sun started to set all six of them had smiles on their faces.

"I'd forgotten how fun it was to fly," said Harry, " Wonder who the captain is going to be this year, eh Ron?"

"Yeah, I wonder who it'll be since Angelina, Katie and Alicia had all graduated. And whoever it is will have to make pretty much an entire new team with the twins gone as well," said Ron as the twins exchanged high fives, "But I'm thinking that they'll make you captain."

Harry stopped walking, "Me?"

"Well, yeah. It's only me and you left on the team from last year and you've got loads more experience than me."

"But you study quidditch all the time Ron, you know way more about the strategy and you've improved quite a bit over the summer. Have you been practicing?

Ron smiled, "Yes, as a matter of fact I have but you'd still make the better captain."

The topic switched to something else that Harry wasn't aware of and they continued on inside and off to bed.

The next day Harry and Ron where awoken by a yell from Hermione. He looked over to see that Ron was awake too so he hastily threw on some clothes and raced downstairs to see what the commotion was about with Ron hot on his trail. When they entered the kitchen they found Hermione looking at a piece of paper and Ginny was looking at one as well.

"What's that?" asked Ron.

"It's our OWL results Ron! Open yours." Said Hermione.

"How'd you do Hermione?" asked Harry sitting down at the table grabbing an envelope addressed to him.

"I got all 10 of my OWLs and they where all Os!" she cried gleefully.

Harry looked down at his own paper.

Dear Mr. Harry James Potter

Below are your last year's OWL results and the classes you are eligible to take the advanced NEWT course for next year.

Harry read his grades out loud:

Transfiguration O

Potions O

Defense Against the Dark Arts R

Charms A

Herbology A

Astronomy E

Divination P

Care of Magical Creatures O

History of Magic D

When he finished and looked up at everyone else. Ron seemed to be looking at him in shock and Hermione seemed a bit put out and Ginny seemed surprised.

"Did somebody get an R?" asked Mrs.Weasley from where she was making breakfast; apparently she had been listening in on the whole conversation, "Was that you, Harry dear?"

"Er, yeah," said Harry hesitantly, "would someone tell me whether I want to have an R or not?"

"Harry," said Hermione as if it was common knowledge, which it probably was for most, "R stands for Ridiculously Good!"

"Oh, I'm so proud of you Harry," said Mrs.Weasley enveloping him in one of her famous bear-hugs, "The only one who ever got an R was Percy."

Harry noticed that she didn't give much thought to Percy anymore. It had been almost a year now and he supposed that she was getting over it.

After a minute she stepped back and examined Harry. "I'm prod of you Harry" she said again and then went back to making breakfast.

"That's great Harry how'd you do Ron?" asked Ginny.

"Oh, great," said Ron somewhat nervously, "Here goes:"

Transfiguration O

Potions E

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Charms E

Herbology E

Astronomy A

Divination T

Care of Magical Creatures E

History of Magic D

"Did I mishear you or did you say 'T'?" said Hermione angrily.

"Uh," said Ron shrinking back, "You mean like in the last week? Oh, sure I say 'T' all the time."

"You know what I mean Ron."

"Er, well yeah I kind of did get a 'T' in Divination."

"Oh," said Hermione breathing a sigh of relief, "If Divination's where you got it then that's the best place to get a 'T'."

Ron let out a sigh as well. He was sure that Hermione would have flipped out on him if he had gotten a 'T' in any other class.

So then it was up to the three going-on-sixth-years to pick their courses for the next year. Hermione decided to take all ten of her advanced classes and take no spares. Ron argued that she needed some downtime but she refuted by stating that 'obviously her future meant more to her than it did to others'. Harry took all advanced courses that he could which where Transfiguration, Potions, Defense, Care of Magical Creatures and Charms. He was able to take advanced charms since his scar hurting had disrupted his exam. He also took Astronomy but dropped the other courses so he could have four spares. Dumbledore had requested that he have at least three spares and decided to go for four just to be safe.

Ron picked the advanced courses for Defense and Transfiguration. Charms, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures would be his other courses. Hermione insisted that he take more than five courses so eventually he gave in and took Divination.

Just then Ginny let out a small squeak as she held up her prefects badge.

"Congrats Ginny," said Harry, "Now the twins are the only ones in your family who didn't get make prefect."

"Well you didn't either Harry," said Mrs.Weasley, "You're part of the family too, you know."

"Well, I guess so," said Harry hesitantly, "Hey Ron did you get the captains badge?"

"Sure, rub it in why don't you?" said Ron.

"You mean you didn't get it?" asked Harry suspiciously, "Cause there's nothing in here about quidditch at all."

"Hmm… I wonder who it'll be then?" asked Ron to no one in particular, "We're the only ones left from the original last year."

So that left Harry and Ron somewhat stumped for a while but after a bit they gave up discussing it and decided to wait until they got to school.

The next month of living at headquarters passed quite uneventfully since after the first week or two the four no longer had any homework to complete. Harry spent most of his time either talking with his friends or attempting to beat Ron in a match of chess, sometimes with Ginny's help he was able to come close to winning but after a while he just accepted the fact that it was not meant to be.

Sometimes they would go outside and play quidditch and Hermione even played once or twice but for the most part it was just the original six. They shuffled the teams around and Harry and Ginny proved to be a good team and actually won quite a few games.

Harry finally gave in and talked about Sirius to Ron, Hermione and Ginny. It made him feel quite better. He wished Luna could have been there thought. Something about her made her easy to talk to. He felt that he was coming back to himself. Who he was before Sirius's death and he couldn't be more thankful for such great friends.

He practiced his occlumency the best he could each day but the nightmares came all the same. They where always similar. In them he saw himself standing on a pillar surrounded by lava. There where pillars all around him with Mr. and Mrs.Weasley, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, the twins, Bill, Charlie, Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, Tonks, Moody, Kingsley and Professor Lupin. He would hear Voldemort laughing and one by one the pillars would fall into the lava killing whoever stood on them.

The order they fell was different each time but the last person to fall was always Ginny and when she fell he would sometimes awake or sometimes scream then awake. He had woken the household several times now. Every time the girls and Mrs.Weasley would come check on him. But it was all he could do to tell them that he was fine with a straight face. He was not fine and every time after he woke up from the dream he would cry until he fell asleep.

One time after he had thought that everyone had left and Ron had fallen back to sleep he felt a weight settle onto his bed. He sat up to find himself staring into Ginny's eyes.

"It's Voldemort isn't it?" she asked softly as to not wake Ron.

Harry who was a little embarrassed at letting a girl see him cry he tried to wipe away his tears. But before he could finish Ginny pulled his hand away.

"Harry, it's alright to cry." Said Ginny soothingly.

It was then that he totally gave in and poured out all the tears he'd been holding back for so long. He leaned on Ginny and she held him. If he wouldn't have had his face hidden Harry would have seen the blush that rose into Ginny's cheeks. He stayed like that for a minute or two until finally Ginny spoke.

"I know what it's like to be controlled by him Harry," she said, "He was controlling me for the better part of a year."

Harry realized that he had forgotten that Voldemort had possessed Ginny during her first year. He decided that he'd tell Ginny about his dream. When he was done she looked at him quietly.

"He's playing on your strengths and trying to turn them into your weaknesses Harry. You mustn't let him do that. Next time try to change the dream. He's trying to make you forget that your ability to love is one of your weaknesses. Never give in to him. Don't make the same mistake I did. I thought that I was able to hold him back but I wasn't when he took away what mattered most to me. My ability to love." Said Ginny through gasps.

Acting on some inner compulsion he reached out and hugged Ginny to him and pressed her face into his shoulder while she cried.

"Don't think about that Ginny, Tom's diary has been gone for years now. You did what you could and I'm proud that you had the courage to even think of throwing it away."

As he said this he rubbed her back and slowly ran his fingers through her hair. It was in this moment that her realized how much Ginny meant to him and how much he wanted to make her happy. But he wasn't sure how she felt about him so he let it drop from his mind.

When Ginny was done she looked up at him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be," said Harry, "What are friends for?"

She smiled. "Thanks"

And with that she got up and left to return to her own room. Harry had spoken to her less since. He realized that he cared about her and he didn't know what to do or say. Things with him and Cho hadn't worked out so well and he was not exactly looking forward to telling Ginny how he felt about her and so he decided that he was less likely to say something stupid if he didn't say anything at all.

But right now found the four together in Ron and Harry's room while an order meeting was about to get underway. Harry was pacing the floor back and forth.

"I can't stand it. I'm the one has to kill Tom, why aren't I in that meeting?"

"Well, you're not yet of age Harry," started Hermione but Harry cut her off.

"Well, I won't find out by sitting here, I'm going to attend this meeting whether they like it or not!"

And before Hermione could even say 'Wait Harry' he was out the door and had slammed it behind him.

Harry went down the stairs and entered the living room where the meeting was taking place. As he entered the room several of the members looked up at him but it was Snape who spoke first.

"Look's like Potter's arrogance has gotten the better of him again!" he sneered.

"What gives you the right to be here and not me?" asked Harry.

"I am at least twice your age and I just so happen to be far more cunning than you as well."

"If you're going to hate me professor, hate me for who I am, not for who my father was."

"Your father was a filthy-"

"Severus, that should quite do." Interrupted Dumbledore, "There is no need to form enemies amongst our allies. Is there something I can do for you Harry?"

"Yes, you could ask me to attend this meeting." He said bluntly.

"Oh, is that all then? Harry would you like to attend this meeting?" he asked.

Harry pretended to think about it for a minute, "Yes I believe I would."

"Find a seat then." Said Dumbledore waving his hand towards a couple of empty chairs.

Snape was furious, "How can you let such an arrogant child join the order?"

"In good time Severus, all in good time," said Dumbledore, "Now if the meeting would now come to order," everyone went to their seats and looked at Dumbledore expectantly, "I believe a welcoming is in order. Our newest member of the Order is none other than Harry Potter."

Everyone applauded politely except Snape who glared at Harry through his eyes, which had become narrow slits.

"Would you like to say something Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

Rather than answer him Harry stood up, "Good evening everyone. I'm glad to finally be a part of the order since it concerns me directly. There is something that I have known for just under two months that I think the rest of the order deserves to know. Albus it already aware of this information, he is actually the one who told me, as are Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley."

He looked over at Dumbledore, slightly nervous but the headmaster smiled his encouragement and Harry continued, "There was a prophecy made about me and Voldemort. Most of you know that. But it was smashed and nobody ever heard it. I found from none other than Albus, that the prophecy that was smashed was simply a recording of the actual prophecy. The original witness to the prophecy was Dumbledore himself. He has told me the prophecy and it's contents."

Harry took a deep breath and let it out. He realized that all the eyes of all the people in the room where fixed on him.

"The prophecy states that someone born as the seventh month dies and who's parents had three times escaped the Dark Lord would be born and the Voldemort would mark him as his equal," as he said this he lifted up his hair to reveal a certain lightning-bolt shaped scar behind it, "It says also that he will have power that the Dark Lord knows not and that neither can live while the other survives and that either must die at the hand of the other."

Everyone in the room looked at him with mouths wide for a moment before turning to gossip with the person sitting next to him or her.

"I believe," said Dumbledore loudly to gain everyone's attention, "that it is now evident why I have decided to admit Harry into the Order, let's move on to other matters."

The rest of the meeting was not as interesting as Harry might have hoped but still well nonetheless. He learned that Snape was being lowered in the Death Eater ranks and that he suspected that he had been found out, he also reported that Peter Pettigrew had returned from a mission to Spain to find the 'libro de Merlin' or 'the book of Merlin'. According to what he heard, which was very little, the book contained things of old magic that Voldemort believed could help him defeat Harry.

The rest was just talk about safety precautions that should be taken to ensure the safety of the people.

When it was over many of the members got up and shook hands with others while carrying on their own private discussions. Harry thought that now was as good a time as any to make things up with Snape. If Dumbledore trusted him then so did he.

"Professor," he started tentatively, "I'm sorry if I insulted you earlier, sometimes I let my anger get the better of me."

Snape regarded him for a moment before nodding his head curtly, "I can understand that. If I'm not mistaken I could have sworn that you'd done some growing up this summer."

Harry thought he almost saw the stern professor smile as he extended his hand to Harry.

"Thanks, professor," said Harry somewhat amazed.

"Here we are on a first name basis Harry, call me Severus. Of course once we get back to school everything goes back to the way it was."

Harry nodded and they shook. From not too far away a smile spread across Dumbledore's face.

Harry talked with a few of his other friends, Tonks, Mad-Eye, Kingsley and he and Remus talked about Sirius for a while. After it was over Harry headed up to his room to relate what had just happened to his friends.

After telling them what happened they all went to their respective beds for a good night's sleep. The next day was after all the day they went to Diagon Alley.

Harry woke early the next morning and decided to wake Ron too, much to the dismay of Ron. The two boys headed downstairs and played a match of wizard's chess before Hermione and Ginny came down then they ate their breakfast and where all standing by the fireplace ready to go.

"Now since the floo network is being watched," said Mrs.Weasley once they where all ready to go, "The order has developed something called bloo powder," as she said it she held up some blue powder, "It is identical to floo powder only it's blue and it cannot be traced. I'll lead then."

And with that she stepped into the fireplace and shouted, "Diagon Alley!" and she vanished in a sapphire flame.

The others followed suit until only Harry remained. He remembered his last attempt to reach Diagon alley with floo powder. "Diagon Alley!" he shouted.

The first thing he noticed was that the ride was much less smooth than floo powder and that he was flying all over the place until he appeared again and felt himself fly into someone and fall to the ground. As it turned out it was Ginny and they both got up very hastily and embarrassed.

"Never did like flooing did you Harry?" asked Mrs.Weasley.

Harry shook his head as Ron laughed at him from behind his mothers turned back.

They went into Diagon alley then got out their school lists.

"Where to first?" asked Mrs.Weasley.

Harry looked around and his eyes stopped on someone who looked like someone he knew. When the person lifted their bowlers had a little higher he recognized Mad-Eye. He groaned, he thought that for once he had been given a chance to go out to a public place without a bodyguard or two.

"Gringotts to get some money then to Flourish and Blotts" said Hermione, bringing Harry back to the present.

So they walked over to the wizarding bank to get some money. Harry took some from his vault and Hermione exchanged some muggle money. Mrs.Weasley took out some money as well and Harry noticed that the vault was fuller than the last time he saw it.

Reading the expression on his face Ron answered Harry's unanswered question, "The twins have been making a killing ever since they opened up their shop. Mom was a little put off at first that they started up a joke shop so they made some more practical things and then business just took off."

Harry smiled to himself. 'Good ole twins' He couldn't be gladder that they had succeeded in their business.

So then they went off to Flourish and Blotts. Harry and Ron went to the cashier and showed her their lists and she found the appropriate books for them and they paid. After a while of looking for her books on her own Ginny did the same.

Then is when the hard part got started; waiting for Hermione to look at every book in the store. After bout an hour she was half done and even Mrs.Weasley was getting impatient. Finally after another half hour Hermione selected the books she would need for next term and enough to last any normal person a lifetime and a half of 'leisurely reading'.

"Well, glad we're done there," said Mrs.Weasley looking at he watch, which said 11:00.

"Let's go get some parchment and quills," said Hermione happily and before any of them could stop her she was already in the shop.

"My quill's lasted me five years!" exclaimed Ron, "Why does she get three every year?"

Hermione went quicker in this store and she was able to select her quills and parchment in a record twenty minutes.

"Now let's go to-" started Hermione.

"Why don't we let the boys pick a shop?" said Mrs.Weasley.

Ron and Harry looked at each other and immediately ran into Quality Quidditch Supplies. It was Harry's dream store. Everything from quidditch books to brooms to lawn mowers!

Harry and Ron rushed over to the broom section with Ginny hot on their trail. They got there to find that several new brooms had been released called 'The Slug', 'Tsunami' and 'Thunderbolt'. Ron and Ginny 'oohed' and 'awwed' over the Thunderbolt but for some reason Harry couldn't take his eyes off of The Slug.

"With a name like that, who'd buy it?" asked Ron.

Harry went over to find an employee and when he found one he asked him about the Slug.

"From what I've heard they made seven, enough for a testing team but then they realized that they couldn't fly worth beans and they sold 'em to us for a cheap price so we took 'em." Explained the employee, "It was going to be called the Streak and be the fastest broom in it's class but something went wrong and it ended up being the worst broom they've made in ages."

"How much do you want for the set of seven?" asked Harry.

"Well if you buy all seven I'll give you a discount for buying multiple brooms and I'll give you a discount just to take them out of our hands. I'll say 100 galleons."

"That's it? A firebolt costs less than that!"

"Well, they're that bad apparently. 100 galleons take it or leave it."

"I'll take it," said Harry laying his wallet down on the counter and counting out the correct amount.

So with seven broom boxes floating behind him Harry and the others left Quality Quidditch Supplies.

"I can't believe you actually bought those useless brooms!" complained Ron from Harry's left.

"I don't know why I just wanted them. I'll be right back, I'm going to floo these back to, er, home."

So Harry went and put the brooms in his and Ron's room back at headquarters and returned just in time for lunch. They ate some muggle-style corn-dogs courtesy of Muggle Treats. They where actually some of the worst corn-dogs that Harry had ever eaten but since the others, save Hermione seemed to be enjoying theirs so much he decide to play along.

They continued they're shopping and had finished by around three and had only to get back to Fred and George's shop and bloo home. That would have been to perfect a day for someone like Harry potter. For until Voldemort was defeated he could never truly 'live' but only survive, as the prophecy suggested.

It started just as they where approaching the side street that Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was located on. All of a sudden Harry saw Kingsley, Mad-Eye and Tonks running towards them.

"We've got company!" said Mad-Eye as he hobbled down the street on his peg leg.

The three aurors formed a circle around the startled students and Mrs.Weasley.

"Into that shop!" said Kingsley pointing, "There's some Death Eaters on the loose! We think that Voldemort himself showed up!"

They didn't need to be told twice and they headed into the shop that turned out to have two staircases on either side of the room up to a balcony up top. There was a huge flat chandelier as well. They quickly ran up the stairs to find that a jewelry shop was there. They quickly explained to the man who ran it what was happening and he told them that they where welcome to stay here as long as they needed. They all lay down near the railing of the balcony so that they couldn't be seen from the door.

Their hope was that the death eaters would leave after a while. But Harry could tell that Voldemort was with them and that he was getting closer every second by the pain that was coming into his scar. When all of a sudden it grew more painful then abruptly stopped.

"They're here," he whispered and no sooner had the words left his mouth than he saw the door blast down and three death eaters entered surrounding Voldemort himself. It wasn't apparent in his appearance. Only Harry knew it was he since he could somehow sense him.

Voldemort pulled back the hood he'd been wearing and uncovered his pale white, snake-like face.

"Come out now Potter and nobody dies!" he yelled.

Before anyone could stop him Harry stood up.

"Here I am Tom." He said boldly.

"Don't call me that. I have never been Tom Riddle. I was born to be Lord Voldemort! AVADA KEDAVRA!" shouted Voldemort.

Since he was so far away Harry had ample time to dodge the curse and watch it dissipate against a wall.

Voldemort stood still for a moment before sniffing the air.

"So," he hissed, "We meet again Virginia."

And he closed his eyes and then smiled. Beside Harry Ginny stood up, almost mechanically, with a fear in her eyes that Harry had never seen before.

"Ginny, get down!" he said.

But then she started to run down the stairs to stand in front of Voldemort. Voldemort conjured a pole in the ground just below where Harry was standing. Ginny walked over to it and Voldemort cast a binding charm so that Ginny was tied to the post. Then he released her from his command.

"HARRY!" Ginny yelled.

"Stay calm Gin!" said Harry, "I'll get you out of this."

But he wasn't so sure of himself. Voldemort laughed.

"I don't think so Potter!" said Voldemort, as he said this he raised his wand again this time pointed at Ginny, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Harry watched almost in slow motion as he cast the spell. Acting on his impulse to protect Ginny Harry took a running start and leapt over the banister and down to the floor below. As he fell he saw the horrified faces of his friends watching him fall. He saw Ginny looking at the curse coming at her with dread in her eyes. He saw Voldemort look at Harry as he fell and saw a smug smile spread across his face. He saw the curse, green and ominous before him and he realized that he was in a collision course with the curse, just as he had hoped.

Suddenly as everything came back to normal speed Voldemort watched as Harry was hit square in the chest by the curse and as if that wasn't enough he landed face-first into the floor and everyone present in the room could hear the sickening sound of Harry's neck snapping.

Then all at once the three death eaters and the three aurors engaged in combat. Voldemort looked at Harry's body with delight.

"I've done it!" he cried, "I've killed Potter!" and with that he flung Harry's body upstairs and against a wall. Harry's friends looked at him in horror before charging down the stairs after the three aurors.

"You'll pay Voldemort!" said Ron throwing curses at Voldemort like mad.

They continued to fight for half a minute with nobody really taking the upper hand since Voldemort was just standing there congratulating himself, when all of a sudden a voice filled the room, "TOM!"

All the combatants stopped dueling and listened again for the voice. A glow seemed to be emanating from upstairs.

"TOM!" came the voice again.

And as if that wasn't enough Harry himself walked up to the banister over which Voldemort had just thrown him. It seemed that he was the source of the glowing.

"B-Bu-But how?" stammered Voldemort.

Harry laughed. He hopped up onto the railing and put his foot over the edge and stepped down. But he did not fall. He then took his other foot off of the banister and stepped down again. It was as if he was using an invisible staircase.

"You're going to pay for what you've done, TOM." Said Harry while floating in the air halfway towards the floor from the second story.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he shouted pointing his wand once more at Ginny.

"Accio Ginny!" yelled Harry. As soon as she reached him he used a banishing charm on her and sent her towards her mother.

"THIS TIME TOM, YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR!" yelled Harry, as he said this he spread his arms out wide and the faint yellow glow that had been surrounding him flared to life and turned into a monstrous green inferno. The glow was so intense that the light could be seen coming out onto the street outside from one of the windows.

Harry threw and invisible ball towards Voldemort and a green ball of flame flew towards Voldemort and knocked him off his feet into the wall behind him. He looked injured but not badly.

"Next time we meet Potter, things will not work out so well!" he shouted before disapparating away and his fellow death eaters quickly followed suit.

Harry dropped to the floor and stood for a moment. His friends looked at him and then his flame went out and he collapsed on the floor.

When he awoke he found himself in his bed at headquarters. He sat up and immediately fell back again due to the pain he was feeling in his neck and groaned. Mrs.Weasley who was sitting in a chair nearby sleeping suddenly woke.

"Harry!" she said jumping up and hugging him forcing another groan from Harry.

"The neck! The neck!" he said. Mrs.Weasley put him down but started crying.

"Harry dear, we'd thought we'd lost you." She managed in between sobs.

Apparently her cries had not gone unnoticed and the rest of the household was soon standing at the doorway and upon seeing Harry awake they all rushed in to hug him.

"No hugs! The neck still hurts!" said Harry just before Hermione reached him.

They spent the next few minutes telling Harry how worried they'd been then Harry had found out that he was unconscious for a day and a half. They talked a bit more before Dumbledore himself arrived.

"Ah Harry," he said, "glad to see you up and about," he turned to look at Harry's friends then looked at the open door. Getting the message they all left quickly.

Dumbledore looked at Harry for a while then turned to the door and pointed his wand at two extendable ears, "Finite Incantum"

Harry heard two muffled curses from behind the wall as he heard the twins follow the rest of their family.

Dumbledore cast a silencing charm on the door then turned to Harry, "It appears that you have and extra word added onto your name now; the-boy-who-lived-…twice."

"Oh great, I'm in the papers aren't I?"

"Well," said Dumbledore chuckling, "Unfortunately so. You are not dissed or made fun of though. The article is rather supportive of you now that Tom is publicly back…Well Harry, it would seem that you have acquired the 'power that the Dark Lord knows not'"

Harry thought about this for a moment. There wasn't much that her remembered about his encounter with Voldemort. He knew that he had somehow beaten him and that he had found an enormous power within himself.

"I believe," said Dumbledore slowly, "That I know how you have found your powers. When you where a child Voldemort could have chosen you or Neville to become his equal. When he cast the avada kedavra curse on you he gave you the powers to be his equal but they where sealed away. You and Neville where already going to be very powerful wizards but he picked you to be the better of the two. I have no idea why Neville does not do better at school. But this magic Voldemort used to transfer his powers to you accidentaly is a very ancient form of magic that was around before Merlin himself. Power transmission. It can only be achieved through the casters most powerful spell on a child who is protected from its bad effects by some other force. In your case, love. So the only thing that could have freed your powers is an immense feeling of love while being hit by Tom's most powerful spell a second time."

Harry stared up at the headmaster taking all of this in one bit at a time. When he thought he had it all figured out he nodded and the white-bearded professor continued.

"So it is apparent where the spell came from. From what Mad-Eye had told me you where hit square on with an avada kedavra curse. The only thing missing is the immense feeling of love you where feeling when you were struck by the curse. Do you think you could explain?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably, he knew the answer all right. He had wanted to save Ginny and had shielded her from the curse.

"Yeah, I think I know where it came from." Said Harry. The head master waved his hands in a circular motion as if to say 'and?', "And well, they had Ginny tied up to a pole and he sent the curse at her and so I wanted to save her and-"

"Why?"

"Because, I don't want anybody to get hurt because of me and-"

"Would you have jumped over a banister to save, say, Draco Malfoy?"

"Well, yeah, I-"

"Don't lie to me Harry, you are forgetting that I am an accomplished Legilimens, I know when I am lied to."

"What made Ginny different?"

"Well, she's my friend, kinda"

"What else about Ginny is different."

"Okay, fine! I like Ginny as more than just a friend but you mustn't tell her, I'm not entirely sure how she'd handle it."

"Then it is as I thought," said Dumbledore happily, "Do not fear, I will not tell a word of what we have just discussed to anyone, least of all Ginny," he paused, "but I think you should."

And with a quick nod he was out the door with Harry staring after him.


	4. The Longbottom Files

Note: I don't own 'the Longbottom files' I got the name from my Harry Potter Soundtrack.

Chapter 3: The Longbottom Files

Neville Longbottom was not you average child by any standard imaginable. First off he was a wizard. But even in the wizarding community Neville was a bit of an odd one. His parents had been two of the most powerful wizards of their time until they had been cursed so badly that they lost their minds. But Neville was an average, no, below average wizard. And he was constantly forgetting things.

In fact it was thought that Neville had no magical talent but he got his application to Hogwarts and he did indeed have, if minimal, magical abilities. But Neville could sometimes sense a power within him that he couldn't quite reach. He knew it. He knew that he had started to uncover it but he needed it now.

Ever since the end of fourth year and Neville had told his parents that Voldemort was back his mother gave him a Trident gum wrapper. At first Neville told himself that his mother wanted to give him something but had nothing to give him so she gave him gum wrappers. But after the fourth or fifth wrapper he became aware of the fact that his mother was trying to tell him something but couldn't say it since she had lost most of her mind.

This did Neville good in more than one way. It told him that even though his parents had lost their minds they still loved him and they where trying to tell him something important. At first Neville wanted to tell his grandmother of his suspicions that his parents wanted to tell him something but he knew that she would overreact or under react so he kept this to himself.

He had searched his house, which had belonged to him and his parents to no avail. He could find no sign of gum anywhere. Until one day he decided to think outside the box. Although it had never occurred to him before, now that he thought of it, it seemed so obvious that he couldn't believe that he'd missed it. The brand of gum. Trident. It was so simple now that he knew the answer.

As a child, he had been told, that he had always liked playing with an action figure of Poseidon, who carried with him at all times, a trident. So his father had made a replica of the figure out of wood and placed in it's own little niche in the wall in the main hall of the house.

Neville approached it soundlessly, not wishing to draw his grandmother's attention to himself. He felt his back pocket and found that his wand was at hand should he need it. One of the things that the toy could do was that it would ask for a password whenever you pulled on its trident. Neville did this now.

"Password," said the stature in a mechanical sounding voice. Now Neville was at a loss. He had no idea what the password had been when he was one year old, now he was nearly 17! He thought, it would have to be something that he could guess. And then it came to him.

"Gum." He said simply.

The statue nodded its head. It sunk into a hole in the niche and then a doorknob came out in its place and door lines appeared where Neville had been sure that there had been none. He reached out and turned the ancient doorknob. The door opened without a creak and he stepped into the dark staircase.

The staircase went down for quite some time. Perhaps it was because Neville was going slowly because of the dark or perhaps it was just his imagination. Nevertheless it took Neville a good fifteen minutes to reach the bottom. When he did he found a room with lit torches. They where obviously spelled otherwise how would they have been burning after the 15 or so years that his parents had been in St.Mungo's.

He looked to his right and found an unlit torch in the wall and he took advantage of this fact. He took the torch out of its holder and lit it from the flame of another torch. He took a look about the room then. What he saw was not all that exciting. A square room with two torches. But upon closer inspection of the room he realized that the floor had tiles in it that spelled something out. He walked along the message holding his torch close to the floor, he read: 'none save a true Longbottom shall pass.'

'Great,' he thought, more puzzles. But first off, where was he supposed to pass? Perhaps if he worked out what the words really meant. Well, he was a true Longbottom. Now he just had to pass. There was the way he had come in and there was the opposite wall and the two to the left and right. He supposed that he was supposed to go to the far wall. 'None save a true Longbottom shall pass'.

Then it was obvious. There was no secret; all he had to do was walk through the wall! He was a true Longbottom so he should be able to pass. He stepped up to the wall and touched it. Or rather, didn't touch it. His hand went straight through the wall and onto the other side. So he took a breath and stepped through the wall.

Upon reaching the other side of the wall he found that there was another room filled with books. On a table there where five books, the rest where on shelves. He looked around the room and quickly discovered that all of the books bore the same title; "The Longbottom Files".

Neville had no idea what these 'files' where but it had him puzzled. He decided to go take a look at the books on the table. On the table was a note. It read:

Congratulations on finding the room that houses the Longbottom files but before you start your celebration you must pick the one true copy or you will never know its secrets. When you see it you'll know that it's the right one.

Neville looked at the five books on the table and the hundreds more on the shelves. Well he obviously didn't know which one was the right one so he hadn't seen it. So he looked at every book in the room individually. He started with the books on the shelves and worked his way from left to right. When he had finally looked at all of the books on the shelf he returned to the table and looked at the five books there again.

He hadn't seen one that looked remotely different than the others. 'When you see it.' Well. He had seen every one at least once now. 'Then you'll know that it's the right one.' The right one. Well he had no idea which one was the right one. Neville had never been very logical and at the moment he was wishing that he were.

The right one. The right one. He tried wording it differently to see if it made any sense. The one that is right. The correct one. The one that is on the right. The one more right than others.

Neville suddenly looked to the last book on the table. Could it be that one? It had to be. It was the book that was the furthest to the right in the room and on the table. He reached for it and picked it up.

No sooner had he done so than all the other books in the room vanished and the bookcases swung around to reveal a table with a crystal-like semi-circle resting on it. Then with a flash of light it came to life. An image of a younger Frank Longbottom strode into view.

"Nice work Neville." He said.

"Dad?" asked Neville excitedly.

"If you are seeing this then more likely than not, your mother and I are dead. You have found the chamber where your mother and I worked on the Order of the Phoenix's documentation known as 'The Longbottom Files'. It contains information on the strategy that the Dark Lord uses in his assaults and his Death Eaters fighting techniques," replied his father, who obviously couldn't hear Neville.

"Also your mother and I before going into hiding sealed your powers away and we planned on releasing them after the demise of the Dark Lord. Unfortunately we never got the chance so I will tell you now how to unlock your true potential. Contained in the back of 'The Longbottom Files' is a stick of Trident Gum. You need to chew it for three days straight. We wanted to make sure that nobody else could waste it. After three days your powers will return to you. And I assure you that you are a very powerful wizard, even for your age Neville."

Neville flipped to the back page and found the stick of gum and popped it into his mouth and started chewing. He looked at his watch so that he knew when to stop in three days time. 11:30! His grandmother was probably worried sick about him! But he had to hear what his father had to say.

"So I hope that you will give these documents to the Order and allow them to use their contents. And that is all I can think of to say. Farewell my son, if it be that I die. You will be a fine man some day…" and with Frank Longbottom disappeared.

Neville took the book and started the long climb back to his house pondering the entire time. His 'potential' his father had said as he thought about the gum that he chewed. It didn't feel any different than any normal gum but he would trust his father with his life if he had full control over his mind, which he did at the time that he had recorded the message.

Fifteen minutes later he reentered his house's main floor hall. He walked down the hall to his kitchen where he found his grandmother drinking what was judging by the number of cups around her, her seventh cup of coffee. Upon seeing her grand son she stood up quickly and went to hug him but stopped short.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"Uh," said Neville, "I was, uh, at a f-f-friends house."

"You have to tell me before you go anywhere Neville, you know that!"

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

So Neville talked with his grandmother for a minute or two before going to bed. He chewed his gum the following day and the next. His grandmother commented on his taking a sudden liking to gum but he didn't care. That night it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to gain his powers agiain. And just in time for school too. He tried to stay up until 11:30 but couldn't manage it.

And 11:30 sharp he awoke to a pain in his whole body. He felt as if he was being filled up with air and was about ready to pop. He got out of bed and saw that he was glowing faintly and increasingly brighter. Until all of a sudden the pain seared all over his body and he saw the light around him burst outwards. Then it subdued to a dim shimmer of light. He found that he felt somehow more, aware than he had before and that he could sense more.

Exhausted he fell asleep quite quickly.

His grandmother shook him awake the next morning.

"Hurry up Neville, you don't want to miss the train."

The train? Of course, the Hogwarts Express. He jumped out of bed and ate a hasty breakfast and gathered up his things. He was ready ages before the Weasley would ever dream of being ready for. His grandmother gave him a pinch of floo powder as they did not know of bloo power and he was off to another, exciting year at Hogwarts.

Author's Note: Well, there's the start of the story, tell me what you think. Should I continue on with it or is it not worth it? Anything anyone has to say would be appreciated. Short chapter I know but I wanted to give Neville a chapter of his own. I'll post as often as I can. I can't make any guarantees but I'd like to post one chapter a week. But don't quote me on it.


	5. Back to School

Author's Note:

Aldebaran Vipertooth: Dang, how could I have forgotten? Thanks for pointing that out to me.

Just so the rest of you know the one who was killed in the first opening was Moaning Myrtle so it couldn't possibly have been Rose Evans. Thank you Aldebaran Vipertooth for pointing out my mistake.

Chapter 5: Back to School

Harry and the Weasleys arrived at the station much after Neville had. Almost half an hour. They arrive on platform 9 ¾ with but a couple of minutes to spare. Harry was always amazed at the fact that ever since the Weasleys had started attending Hogwarts even Charlie and Bill, never had they missed the train. Except for in his second year Ron had missed the train after Dobby sealed the gate on him but you couldn't really count that.

"Now all of you behave this year, I don't want any repeats of last year," she said giving the twins a nasty look.

"Don't worry mom, we'll be fine. Besides we don't have any exams this year so we won't get caught up in our work." Said Ron.

"Lucky," mumbled Ginny.

Ron stuck his tongue out at her and rushed off through the gate. Harry followed with Ginny then Hermione behind him. By the looks of it they where the last ones to arrive at the station since there was no sign of anyone else anywhere except for the people on the train.

"We'd best hurry," said Hermione.

The other three followed her onto the train. They where headed for a compartment that they saw open near the back when Harry heard someone call his name. He looked and saw Neville sitting in a compartment with Luna Lovegood. Neville motioned them over and Harry and his friends piled in. Once they where in Neville got up and closed the door behind them, locked it then took out his wand and placed two locking charms and several silencing charms.

Harry noticed something different about his friend since he had last seen him at the department of mysteries last year. He seemed surer of himself, more confident. Harry couldn't quite put his finger on it but he knew that it was something.

When Neville had taken his seat again he reached into his trunk and pulled out a squarish shape wrapped in newspaper. He took it off to reveal a dusty old book. It was rather plain, covered with blue cloth. But as soon as Harry saw the spine where the title of the book was written he knew that this was something big.

"This book," said Neville, whose voice was little more than a whisper, "Is 'The Longbottom Files'. Its contents have not been read in over a decade."

"Yeah, so," said Ron, "Neither had 'Hogwarts a History' until Hermione came along." Said Ron.

But as soon as he caught sight of the title his expression changed from comical to serious. Hermione, Ginny and Luna also recognized the importance of the book that Neville held.

"That book could be the key to beating Voldemort!" said Luna.

"Very possibly so," agreed Neville, "If in the right hands. If it should somehow fall into the wrong hands…"

"That bad eh?" asked Harry.

"No, worse. Inside are the techniques that Voldemort and his death eaters employ. Their spells, formations, mindset, everything! As soon as we get to Hogwarts I'm going to give it to Dumbledore. I'm not going to read a word of it until he tells me that it's all right," said Neville seriously.

When he was done he waved his wand at the door and the charms where removed. The rest of the ride passed for the most part uneventfully.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny left for the prefect's car and returned a few minutes later all looking a little bit more serious.

Harry and Ron played a few more matched of wizard's chess. Harry had gotten Ron down to his king and a castle while he still had his king, queen and a castle but somehow Ron managed a comeback.

"I may as well try to understand why grass is green," said Harry in annoyance after loosing his fifth match of the day.

"Someday you'll beat me," said Ron reassuringly, "Next time I've just been through double potions. Oh, wait. I'm not in Potions!" said Ron before pointing at Harry and laughing his head off.

Harry also contemplated telling Neville and Luna about the prophecy but decided to do it when nobody else was around.

Ginny, Hermione and Luna sat to one side talking excitedly in whispers, no doubt having some of their 'girl talks'. Ron, who had been woken up entirely too early by his standards slept and gave Harry a chance to talk with Neville.

"You seem different since I last saw you Neville," said Harry, "You seem just more, confident."

Neville went on to give him a brief summary of what had befallen him the last week and Harry was very surprised but at the same time not. He had always known that Neville was pure of heart and that he was more than he seemed.

"You don't seem quite the same yourself there Harry," said Neville looking Harry up and down.

Then it was Harry's turn to reveal how he had gotten his newfound powers. He gave a slightly modified and less heroic version of what had really happened and left out the part about him needing to have a strong feeling of love.

"Wow, Harry," said Neville as he looked at Harry in awe, "And I though that my story was interesting!"

And what trip on the Hogwarts Express would be complete without a visit from Malfoy and his goons. They showed up just before the food cart reached the them. Malfoy threw open the door and looked at them all with a smirk on his face.

"I suppose you all think you're pretty clever don't you? After all you did get my father thrown in jail. But he has friends in high places Potter. And I would suggest that you do the same," said Malfoy giving Ron and Ginny a glance which made them both turn red with anger.

"Get out Malfoy, we have no use of sniveling jerks," said Harry.

"We, shall see, Potter. For the time nears," said Malfoy in a whisper. When he had finished he let a sinister grin play across his features before signaling to Crabbe and Goyle to leave.

"Good day," he said before closing the door again with a slam.

The six of them sat in silence until the food cart came around and Harry graciously bought everyone more candy than you'd need for months. The six of them continued to make small talk until the train arrived at the Hogsmeade station. As they all made their way to the castle in thestral-drawn carriages Harry watched the lake on which he could see the lanterns of many boats containing a bunch of no doubt, very nervous first years.

Harry smiled in recollection. It seemed like just a few short days ago that he had ridden in one of those boats himself across that very lake. And now he was a year and ten months away from leaving Hogwarts forever.

As they entered the great hall they noticed that the house banners had all been taken down and replaced with the Hogwarts crest and underneath them, much smaller than before where the house banners. Harry supposed that this was another one of Dumbledore's attempts to bring the houses closer together.

Soon everyone was in their seats chattering amiably amongst themselves.

"What do you suppose Malfoy meant?" asked Hermione to Ron and Harry.

"Who knows Malfoy can be very odd someti- no, wait, all the time. So maybe he was just trying to scare us," suggested Ron.

"No, that's not like him. Last year he said something about," he swallowed, "Sirius, and now I'm more than certain that he knew darn well what he was saying," said Harry firmly.

"Hmm, perhaps," said Ron thoughtfully before his stomach grumbled audibly, "I'm starved, let's get us some chow here!"

Hermione looked like she was going to say something but shook her head and turned to watch as the first years made their way hesitantly into the great hall.

"Look how puny they are," said Ron pointing at a particularly short first year.

"More like 'look how tall _you _are'," said Ginny pointing at Ron.

Hermione shushed them then waited as Professor McGonagall sat the sorting hat down on a stool in front of the head table and the hat began it's yearly song:

For many a year

Have I sorted the new

I put them in the house in which

I think good they will do

But never before have I seen

A time so dark and cold

The time has come

For young and old

To work together

To achieve what's right

Much will be needed

In this time of plight

So pick up the slack

Pull it taught

For if you fail to cooperate

Succeed you shall not

Step up now

And sorted you shall be

Put me on your head

And then we'll see

The hall was engulfed in polite applause for the sorting hat at the poems completion. Then Professor McGonagall stepped forward and unrolled a piece of parchment that she had drawn from within her robes.

"Anthony Adesford! Please come have a seat on the stool," she said as she removed the hat from the chair and plopped it on top of poor Anthony's head. No sooner had the hat come to rest then it shouted out "Hufflepuff!" Cheers rose from the Hufflepuff table as Anthony hurried over, anxious to be out of the spotlight.

The list continued on…and on… and on. It seemed to be taking forever. Harry felt like he was ready to pass out and he looked over at hollow legs to see if he'd died of hunger yet. Surprisingly Ron was still sitting in his chair, looking at the bare table in front of him. Harry could have laughed but he didn't want the first years to think that he was laughing at them.

Finally the list came to an end with Hilary Wolfric, Ravenclaw. Then Dumbledore rose. As he did so Harry completely forgot that he had not checked the table to find out who the new defense teacher was. The only person he saw who was new to the staff was a bald old man who wore glasses on the very tip of his nose and looked like the could fall off if you blew on them.

Ron followed Harry's gaze, "That's the new defense teacher? That old bloke could be my grandfather, no, my dad's grandfather!"

"Looks can be deceiving Ron," said Hermione, "You shouldn't judge someone like that. You've never even seen him before a few seconds ago."

"I don't care who you talk to, that old guy couldn't be a good teacher," said Ron.

"Then why do you suppose Dumbledore hired him?" asked Hermione, with a smug look on her face.

Luckily for Ron Dumbledore choose that moment to commence his speech, "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. As many of you know, these times are not pleasant ones. Come back, our enemy has. You must learn to work together and to do what's right. It is for this reason that quidditch this year will be played quite differently. Each team will consist of the seven basic players along with one alternate seeker, keeper and beater and two alternate chasers. Each team will consist of three members of each house. There will be six teams. You will be notified when captain's tryouts will be held. Only students who are 5th years or above may tryout for captain. Then tryouts will be held for each of the four positions and captains choose whom they like."

There was mumbling heard about the hall, the new quidditch system was clearly not a popular one. But it soon calmed down as Dumbledore started once more, "Also Mr. Filch has informed me that fake octopus repellant, automatic snow, smacking canes and all products made by the newly founded 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' are now on the list of items that will be confiscated from students." He smiled at the mention of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

"Also I would like to welcome the newest member of our staff, Professor Verplank."

Everyone clapped politely for the old teacher who stood up with more zest than Harry thought he was capable of and waved to the students.

"Thank, you professor," said Dumbledore once Professor Verplank had taken his seat once more, "Professor Verplank will be teaching potions."

"What?" asked Harry, "Potions? Then what about Snape? Did he-" Harry stopped as realization sunk in.

"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Ron, "Snape teaching Defense! I though I'd seen the last of him!"

Hermione and Ginny just sat there in shock as Dumbledore continued on, "Professor Snape has kindly agreed to teach Defense against the Dark Arts. The Forbidden Forest was given its name for a reason and no students should enter it at any time. Now without further ado, tuck in."

Ron stuck his hands out into the open table and a plate filled with chicken appeared right where his hands where and he snatched it and started eating before anyone even knew what happened. A good while later a very full Harry along with Neville walked up to Dumbledore. Hermione, Ron and Ginny had prefect's duties to attend to.

"Good evening gentlemen," said Dumbledore as Harry and Neville approached him, "Can I help you?"

"Sir, I've got something I'd like to show you, in private," said Neville confidently.

"Of course, this way please," replied Dumbledore motioning for them to follow. They walked all the way to the entrance to the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore walked up to it the gargoyle and opened his mouth. The staircase started to revolve and Harry and Neville followed him into his office.

When they arrived in the room Dumbledore was already sitting behind his desk. Harry glanced around at the multitude of paintings that adorned the walls. He also noticed that his tables seemed just as cluttered as they had last year before he had trashed the place. And he also recognized the silver instrument that he had thrown across the room. He smiled sheepishly at the headmaster.

"You have something you wish to show me?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, sir, this book, sir." Replied Neville holding out 'The Longbottom Files' to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's eyes widened slightly upon seeing the book, "Can it be?" he whispered taking the book and flipping through the pages, "Neville Longbottom, you have just provided the Order of the Phoenix the kind of boost it needs! Have you any idea what this is?"

"Yes, it's 'The Longbottom Files' sir."

"Yes, this was the only documentation kept by the order during the first rise of Voldemort. It contains everything we need to know. I will read through it myself then call an order meeting. Neville, I believe that you have merited a place in the Order."

"Thank you very much, professor."

"Now off you go."

Harry and Neville rose to go when the headmaster spoke.

"Harry, there is something I wish to discuss with you. Actually you too Neville."

"Oh, sure," said Harry retaking his seat, "What is it Albus?"

"I would like to discuss your training."

"My training… Albus?" asked Neville using the headmaster's given name after hearing Harry do so.

"Yes, your power level is much greater than it was two months ago, as is yours Harry. And I believe without proper training your power will turn destructive. Professor Moody will be your mentor. One of your spares will be spent with him. Another will be spent with Professor Verplank who will get your bodies in shape.

Harry seriously doubted that the old guy could even lift his cane let alone be in shape but he let it slide.

"Also Harry you will have one class with Professor Snape in Occlumency."

Harry groaned but the headmaster seemed oblivious.

"I believe that that is all I have to say, I bid you good night!"

Harry and Neville got up and made their way to Gryffindor tower.

"Let's not share this with anyone, I don't want to be treated like I'm special or anything," said Neville to Harry once they where out of the headmaster's office.

"Yeah, sure, not until I see how it is first. But did he actually say that Professor Verplank would be keeping our bodies in form or something like that."

"I think so but I can't imagine it. Perhaps Dumbledore made a mistake. Maybe he owled the wrong Mr. Verplank."

"Not likely, Dumbledore's ever only made a couple mistakes that I'm aware of and they weren't dumb mistakes like that either."

"Perhaps. Hey, are you continuing on with the DA this year?"

"I haven't thought about it much recently, why?"

"Because I always felt that I would excel in defense and now that I've gotten my powers back I think that I'll be able to become one of the best duelists of our time." He said this with such passion that Harry hardly doubted him.

"If I want to be able to beat Voldemort I guess that I've got to hope that I can as well." Harry supposed that Neville would find out about the prophecy anyways and he'd rather do it now while he was alone.

"Huh?" asked Neville, "I mean, I want Voldemort taken out as much as the next guy but I wouldn't take it upon myself to do it single-handedly especially at such a young age."

Harry then went on and gave him a brief recounting of the entire prophecy and what it said.

"Blimey! I'm glad I don't even wear the same brand of shoes as you! I don't envy you one bit Harry. But I'll wish you the best. It's all I can really do for the moment."

The two walked on towards the sixth year boy's dormitory. Unfortunately for Harry he had forgotten one very important thing when he had told Neville of the prophecy: He was in the wizarding world.

Jasper Yakovich watched the two boys walk away down the hall. He had heard all that he wanted to hear. If only he was still amongst the living he would have gone to his master himself but he would have to disclose this information to a trustworthy follower of the Dark Lord. But who? There was that Malfoy boy. But he seemed to fail far too often. Of course! It was obvious, Severus Snape. He was a death eater as well.

He was so very glad that he had been moved from the house that he had been in when the owners of the house had been living. He was however unable to do anything about it being a portrait. But the moment he had been hung up in the school he had started working at his master's noble deeds.

He went to Severus that night and told him. He was of course unaware of the fact that Severus was the Order's spy. Later that night the portrait of Jasper Yakovich was burned. But Dumbledore vowed to be more careful from now on and he would tell Harry to do the same. For they had almost lost the upper hand that night. Had Jasper gone to Malfoy rather than Snape, the Dark Lord would have learned the full contents of the prophecy, spelling possible desaster for the wizarding world.

The next morning at breakfast Professor McGonagall handed out timestables to all of Gryffindor's students. Harry looked his over. In the morning he had Defense then double astronomy followed by defense with Mad-Eye then Physical wellness with Professor Verplank.

Ron and Hermione would be with him for Defense but after that he was on his own.

Harry walked into the defense against the dark arts room and took a seat near the back beside Ron, who was beside Hermione. When the rest of the class had settled down Snape walked in to the room robes billowing behind him.

"I trust you've all had a good summer, now it's time to get cracking. You may think that since this year you are not taking any large exams you will have less homework. That assumption couldn't be further from the truth. Now if you'd all turn your books to page 12 we'll get started," instructed Snape coolly.

The research was mostly about defensive and shield charms. After the theory part of the lesson they where all asked to come down and try their shield charms out against one of Snape's expelliarmus spells. It was quite apparent that Snape was not trying his hardest until it came to Neville's turn.

Neville walked up to the front of the class boldly and stood before Snape. In the blink of an eye Snape cast the most powerful expelliarmus that Harry had ever seen him do. Neville crossed his arms so that each of his hands touched the opposite shoulder and flicked his wand slightly. The curse evaporated harmlessly against his protective wall.

"Very good, Longbottom," sneered Snape, obviously hoping that Neville wouldn't have been able to block the spell, "Potter!"

Harry waked past Neville, to whom he nodded slightly and walked up to the front to square off against Snape's expelliarmus.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Cried Snape, with a vehemence that Harry had never seen in him before.

Snape had not given Harry time to get his wand out. Without giving it much thought Harry thrust his two hands forward and then spread them to either side and he watched as a green shimmering wall came into existence. Snape's spell hit it with great force but rather than evaporate it rebounded upon it's caster, Snape.

When Snape had gathered himself up off of the floor and collected his fallen wand he whirled on Harry.

"I don't believe I asked for a demonstration of a reflective charm, or am I mistaken?"

"No, sir," replied Harry, "No mistake sir."

"Take your seat."

Harry turned and sighed in relief as he walked back to his chair.

"But that won't stop me from taking twenty-five points from Gryffindor."

Hermione scowled at Harry as he returned to his seat while Ron gave him a slap on the back.

"That was priceless mate. I wish Collin would have been here to get a picture of that."

The rest of the class passed without incident and he went on to his astronomy class, which he could tell would easily be his least favorite class.

He ate lunch in the great hall with his friends as they discussed their first classes of the year. And then he was off to Defense with Mad-Eye.

As he entered the room which was a small room with nothing but a window Moody walked in behind him.

"Quick! Draw your wand." He barked.

Harry quickly reached into his robes and withdrew his wand and pointed it towards Mad-Eye.

"You fail! F-! First off, you've got to have your wand at the ready in a split second! And secondly you're holding your wand all wrong!" snarled Mad-Eye, then his eye did a full rotation of the room, "Now where's that Longbottom kid?"

"Here, Professor Moody, sir," panted Neville as he ran into the room, "I've never been to this room before."

The he went through the same thing that he had with Harry with much the same results.

"Now," said Mad-Eye once he was through tormenting Neville, "I'm going to teach you where to keep your wands and how do hold them. There are four places you can place your wands for quick and easy access, the fast four. On is just down your back kept in place by one of these," he held out a small, round, skin colored device, "It's like a magnet for wands, observe," he placed the small thing on his arm and it seemingly vanished. Then he took his wand and placed it against his arm where it stuck, even when he turned his wand upside-down.

He went on to show them the other three places, which were your forearm, your calf and surprisingly, behind your ear. Harry finally understood why Luna always did it now. Then he went on to show them proper wand holding. Finally the class was over.

"Good work today boys, but be prepared for some real work on Wednesday! Besides Harry, you don't really need all this wand holding stuff anyways." And with that Mad-Eye left the room.

Neville and Harry made their way down to the school gym, which wasn't very frequently used at a wizarding school where they met Professor Verplank.

"Alright boys, today I'm going to start teaching you the basics of an excersise program to keep you in tip-top shape."

Harry couldn't help but sustain a small chuckle at seeing the old man tell them that he was going to get them in shape. His baggy clothes seemed like they would trip him if he wasn't too careful.

"Is something the matter Harry?" he asked.

"No, sir, nothing is the matter."

"Then perhaps you'd like to test your skills as a martial artist against mine. Hmm?"

Harry was sure that if he so much as tapped the guy he'd faint, "Maybe we shouldn't-"

"Afraid you'll loose to someone who's seventy-eight? Come on, show me what you've got!"

Reluctantly Harry stood up off the floor and turned himself sideways and crouched low. He knew absolutely nothing about martial arts but he wanted to make it look like he did.

Professor Verplank did the same and they waited, Harry made the first move and went to punch Verplank lightly in the stomach but before he could his wrist was caught in a tight grip and thrust to the side then he was hit forcefully by a left jab. He didn't fall over but he wheeled back for a moment before crouching low again. This time he'd take the defensive.

Verplank looked at him a moment then said, "This may be harder than you thought." And then he removed the baggy coat and pants he always wore to reveal a muscle shirt and shorts. Usually on an old guy that looks disgusting but when Harry saw the size of this guys muscles he nearly fainted. Verplank smiled at his reaction, "Surprised?"

And then he came at him he threw a left hook which Harry managed to block but then he was on the floor swiping Harry's feet from under him.

Verplank backed off as Harry got back to his feet, eyes wide. Then he started again. Right hook, left jab. Harry blocked both, then another right hook which he blocked but the second he did Verplank vanished, just vanished.

"Behind you," Verplank said softly. When Harry looked behind himself he briefly saw Verplank standing there but then he was gone again. But then he felt his skull rattle as he felt a blow against his stomach as Verplank thrust his knee into Harry's gut. Harry doubled up in pain.

"That's enough torture for one day. Go to your dormitory." Professor Verplank ordered. Harry did not argue as he made his way painfully to the door, "And when you are back tomorrow, make sure that you bring a more open mind with you, Hmm?"

Harry nodded and left for his dormitory where he collapsed on his bed. He certainly would be wary of that man from now on.


	6. The Time Will Soon Come

A/N: I'm back. I abandoned writing this story months ago but rereading the fifth book has resparked my interest so I'm giving it another go. Sorry to all those (very few) who were enjoying the story. I'm going to try to stick with it to the end this time. All your reviews are what keeps me going. You woulnd't believe how much I appreciate a review. Even "YOU SUCK!" at least I know that somone read it.

Chapter 6: The time will soon come

Harry was awoken just before the last classes of the day ended by Neville.

"C'mon, lets go down for supper," he said.

Grudgingly Harry removed himself from his bed and walked out of the room with Neville. Harry had a feeling Neville wished to discuss something with him so he followed, much as he would have like to have stayed in bed and sleep off his wounds.

When they arrived in the hall classes had finished and some students where coming into the great hall rather than wait a bit for supper in their common rooms. Harry and Neville took a seat at Gryffindor table.

"Harry, I think Voldemort's up to something and it's going to happen here, very soon," Neville whispered.

Harry nodded for his friend to continue on.

"I have a feeling though that he will not try to attack you though."

"Why not?" questioned Harry, "I told you the prophecy."

"Yes, that's why he won't go after you. He'll go after on of your friends since he wouldn't come here himself since he knows that he probably wouldn't stand a chance against you and Albus so he'll send someone else."

"Yeah so?"

"So, since the prophecy says that," he looked around, "'one must die at the hand of the other' that means that only he can kill you, not somebody else. In fact if you wanted right now you could have fifty people cast the killing curse on you while getting stabbed by seventy daggers and having your eyes poked out by vultures while suffering of every disease imaginable and you still wouldn't die! But if one of the people was Voldemort, you would."

Harry thought about it for a moment, "I guess you're right. Wow, I could do anything pretty much!"

"Well you'd probably still get really badly hurt but you wouldn't die."

From there they moved on to lighter topics such as their first classes and the beating Harry had received courtesy of Professor Verplank. Eventually the rest of their friends joined them at the table.

"Bloody hell Harry, what happened to you?" asked Ron upon seeing Harry's slightly more beat up appearance.

"Er,-" Harry started.

"-tripped and fell on our way to class he did," answered Neville for him. Harry sent him a grateful smile.

"On his face?" asked Ginny.

"It was nasty," replied Neville.

Soon supper was starting but before it did Dumbledore gave a brief announcement, "Tomorrow at seven we will be holding the captains tryouts, all who wish to be team captains should report to the pitch by quarter to seven tomorrow evening. Let us eat."

And the discussion quickly changed to quidditch.

"Who d'you recon will be the captains?" asked Ron.

"I'm betting that Harry gets in," said Ginny.

"Well, I'd be okay with that," said Harry modestly.

The next day found the Gyrffindors chatting over breakfast until it was time for classes to start. Harry's first class was potions, which he had mixed feelings about. It would be his first ever potions class that wasn't under the direction of Snape, but it would also be under the direction of a seventy-eight year old that beat him up the day before.

As he and Hermione entered the class he picked a seat at the far back. Hermione looked longingly at the front of the class but came to sit beside Harry. It turned out that Neville too was in Potions and he sat on Harry's other side.

"Hi, Harry!" said Neville cheerfully, "Bet you didn't expect to see me in advanced Potions did you? But without Snape watching over me I did really well on the exam!"

"Nice one." Said Harry without much conviction, for Professor Verplank had just entered the class.

"Good morning everyone!" he beamed at them all, "My name as you may know is Professor Verplank" he waved his wand at the board and the proper spelling appeared there, "I'm glad to see such an eager group of students with me this year as we will be covering a lot of ground this year to prepare you for your NEWT year. You will be tested on a regular basis and will submit a sample of every completed potion you produce in this class. Well I think that should do for introductions."

Harry took a glance around the room and saw students from all four houses, indicating that only one advanced potions class had been assembled this year.

"Today we will begin with a simple potion that you will be able to have finished for the end of class. The potion is a hair-growing potion. Your instructions are," he waved his wand at the board and his name was replaced with the recipe, " on the board. Any questions, feel free to ask."

Professor Verplank walked behind his desk and watched as the students began work on their potions. Harry found it all together more enjoyable than any lesson he'd ever had with Snape. He felt confidant that as his brown hair-growing potion lay on professor Verplank's desk after class that his potion was near perfect.

He walked to his next class, another defense with Snape.

Hermione and Harry entered to find Ron already at his trademark spot in the back. The two took seats on either side of him.

Snape was nowhere in sight, and remained that was for 5 minutes. Suddenly when Harry was considering leaving to catch up on his homework Snape fell from the ceiling with his wand pointed at the floor.

"TRAMPOLINO!" he bellowed while falling.

He hit the floor hard but surprisingly he bounced up and landed on his feet.

"I have just given you a demonstration of the bouncing charm and the sticking charm." He announced with but a trace of modesty, "We will be practicing these charms today under my careful supervision."

He went on to give the proper annunciation and wand movements for both charms. Then the students lined up and tried it for themselves. All was going well until Lavender became panicked and used a reductor curse rather than the bouncing charm. Luckily Snape had stopped it and placed his own bouncing charm on the floor.

And then it was Harry's turn. He climbed his way up the wall then let go and started his bouncing charm.

"Trampol-" but he never finished, "-Shut up you imbecile boy! CRUCIO!" Harry's wand pointed at Snape who was about to apply his own bouncing charm.

Snape writhed in pain and nobody stopped Harry from colliding with the floor.

Pain seared through Harry's body. No sooner had he felt it than he had started laughing. The same laugh as the year before. All the students watched on in horror, some shrieking and the odd few fainting. And that was the last thing Harry knew.

He awoke in the hospital wing several hours later with a much reduced throbbing in his chest where he had belly-flopped onto the floor. He supposed by now he had the all-time record for most visits to the hospital wing by a single student but he wasn't in any hurry to extend his record. Mme. Pomfrey who had noticed Harry's arousal hurried over to him.

"You mustn't move dear, the potion works best on an immobile body." She told him.

"Yeah, alright." Said Harry absently. What had happened to him? Had Voldemort once again intruded into his mind? He didn't dare think that he himself had produced such a powerful cruciactus curse. The cruciactus curse! Fudge was sure to get wind of that and he'd have him expelled and sent…to Azkaban. Although with the recent rebellion of the dementors he couldn't expect it to be quite so bad.

At that moment Dumbledore rushed into the room, robes billowing behind him.

"Ah, Harry!" He said, joyfully, "Good to have you back. I suppose you're wondering what happened just now."

"No, not at all, I'm certain that Voldemort tried to take control of me so that he could kill me but what I want to know is why since he knows that the only one who can kill me is him?"

"It would seem you've figured out how the prophecy may help you! As to your question though I have no idea. You'd best stop getting into trouble like this though your aunt is back at home now but she feels an odd tugging at her heart whenever you sustain an injury" replied Dumbledore.

"Oh." Said Harry only partially interested as he was beginning to feel very sleepy, "Sorry, Albus, I'm feeling drowsy at the moment."

"No problem at all Harry, I'll be sure to catch up with you on another occasion though."

And with a sweep of his robes he was out the door. Harry was asleep before his head hit the pillow. It was a good while later until he woke up, quite unnaturally though as he was being shaken.

"Stofit," he said groggily, "g'way"

"Harry! Wake up!" screamed a voice.

That was enough to wake the other half of him up.

"I'm up! I'm up!" he said sitting up sharply to a large pain in his ribs and right leg. He saw Ginny looking frantically around the room.

"It's terrible!" she managed in between gasps, "Apparently all the death eaters broke out of Azkaban and a total of 30 of them broke into the school!"

Harry tried climbing out of bed but found that his leg could not support his weight. As much as he hated to resort to muggle means he could think of no other way and he conjured up a pair of crutches. It never occurred to him that he neither knew how to do a conjuring spell nor did he have his wand.

As much as it pained him he hobbled to the door and turned to Ginny, "Where are they?"

"Is the widdle Harry wost?"

Harry froze. And just as quickly his temper boiled over the top. There was no mistaking the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange. He wheeled around wand already drawn from its quick draw location on his back.

"You," he said his voice shaking and arm outstretched towards Bellatrix, "YOU!"

"Wooks like the widdle Harry hurt himsewf. He won't be able to fight wike that."

Harry's anger took control. The inferno blazed around him. Blazing to life with a loud explosion. Ginny had been thrust against the wall but he did not care. All that mattered was squeezing the very last drop of blood out of that vile woman. His crutches seemed to have disappeared and he was holding two cannon-like things.

He fired spell after spell towards Bellatrix, wandless or not.

"STOP HARRY!" cried a voice that seemed quite distant; he would not let it interrupt this. He fired a curse in the voice's direction and was surprised to see it deflected.

Neville ran at top speed towards the hospital wing, Harry was the one he needed to see, he always knew what he was doing. He heard noises coming from the room and nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. Harry was holding two strange objects and firing curse after curse at something he could not see, as it was behind a curtain. He was literally on fire, green fire all around him.

He saw Dumbledore beside him yell at Harry to stop. Harry turned to Dumbledore and for a moment Neville saw his eyes and saw nothing but evil. Then he fired on Dumbledore. Neville whipped out his wand and sent the curse away. That had been a cruciactus curse!

Neville quickly threw a stunning charm at Harry but the fire surrounding him ate is with a sinister crackle. He threw everything he had and saw Dumbledore doing the same. He also noticed Ginny lying on the floor against the wall and hoped desperately that she wasn't dead.

It was then that he decided to try his powers. He reached down inside himself and the familiar glowing enveloped him. He put his wand away. He knew that he had no need of it. He summoned a rod holding up one of the curtains but not before Harry sent it away. He conjured one of his own.

He didn't want to hurt Harry but he knew that he needed to do something about what Harry was doing. What was wrong with him? He bent the pole into a circle and was just finishing when Harry sent a cruciactus curse at him. He dropped his hoop and placed some of his magic in it and leapt to the side before rolling behind a bed.

Soon after the bed was incinerated. He sent a disarming charm at Harry while running towards another bed, he jumped onto it as Harry did the same across the room from him. Neville jumped and managed to grab the chandelier and it ripped from the ceiling and it was about to fall on top of him.

Quickly he levitated it above himself and kick-jumped himself up just in time to see one of Harry's next volley of curses. But just as they were approaching time seemed to slowe down and Neville could easily wind his way in and out of the various curses. Then he sent the chandelier back to the ceiling above his hoop.

Neville ran under it. Harry slowly started walking towards him. Neville too was now slowly backing away until he came against the wall. He was nearly there.

As soon as Harry stepped into Neville's make shift hoop, Neville flicked his wand at the chandelier, which began its descent to Harry's head just as Harry shouted, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Neville had little time to think, he conjured a mirror in front of him realizing too late what might happen to Harry. Harry was looking up at the chandelier and also realized too late that his spell had come back on him, he thrust out his right hand to block the spell but it was too late and blasted his hand, right before the chandelier landed on his head.

If it wasn't for the fact that only Voldemort could kill Harry he'd have been long dead twice over.

Dumbledore awoke Harry several minutes later. He had a grave expression on his face. There was a pounding on the door but Dumbledore ignored it. Neville was standing nearby his face both pale and sweaty from exertion. Harry's hand felt pain beyond imagination, he couldn't even feel it. He decided to just stay lying on the floor.

"Harry there is something which I think you should see." Said Dumbledore, there was no expression in his voice.

He levitated Harry around the curtain which Neville had seen him firing curses at. Harry felt his stomach lurch, he remembered what he had just done just not the details. Dumbledore set him down leaning against the nearby wall and he drew back the curtain.

Inside was the most disgusting thing Harry had ever seen. In the center of the enclosure was a mangled corpse not even distinguishable as Bellatrix's. Blood was all over the walls and most of her bones were broken. Harry sickened at the though that he had done that, even if it was Bellatrix. He leaned to the side and vomited.

"Now Harry, I don't care what your excuse is, I'm taking 100 points from Gryffindor. He looked at Harry's hand. And I'm going to have to give you detention for a month, this is going to look very bad indeed." He said shaking his head, "It's lucky for you that Neville is such a skilled wizard. Today in class Voldemort took over your mind but just now he did not. That," he gestured to Bellatrix, "is your doing alone. You need to learn to control your powers not the other way around. Power is a dangerous thing and it corrupts, we have Voldemort to attest to that. Also the attack wasa failure in that, nobody was harmed. Only 3 death eaters actually came, the rest were illusions."

He decided not to tell Harry that the words: THE TIME WILL SOON COME, on the walls of the great hall. He then walked over to Ginny and uttered, "Enervate," and then flicked his wand at the curtains, which closed, then the door.

Professors McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick all tumbled into the room. Their conversation was lost on Harry. He was still revolted with what he had done to Bellatrix. He did not even notice Ginny crawl to the left of him. She seemed apprehensive.

"Are you alright Harry?" she asked, "All I remember was being thrown against the wall." She rubbed the back of her head gingerly.

"I'm sorry," said Harry plainly, "I, I, I'm a monster! I don't even deserve to talk to you!"

He stood up. Ginny moved towards him to hug him.

"Go!" cried Harry. He stretched his arms out to push her away but only one hand connected. It was as if his right hand had gone right through Ginny. He could see his wrist sticking out of her loose robes. And then it struck him. He felt sense of helplessness that he had never before felt.

He could see Ginny's robes were already shining from the blood on them and he knew the truth, the horrible truth.

He slowly removed himself from Ginny's robes. As he did she gasped. For after Harry's wrist there came nothing for the blast had incinerated his hand.


	7. The Monster Within

A/N: Well I'm glad at least some people are still reading. Thanks to all that reviewed and to Voxenking for sticking with my story! I'm going to try shorter and more frequent chapters this time around to see how it goes.

Chapter 7: The Monster Within

Harry awoke the next morning at around 10 o'clock. He looked at his surroundings for a moment before the events of the night came back to him. He shuddered and then looked over at the pulled curtains around what was left of Bellatrix. Then he remembered his hand. He looked at his heavily bandaged stub. How helpless he felt without his hand! He could not remember another time when he had felt so alone.

Nobody else was in the room so he called for Mme. Pomfrey. She came bustling into the room and asked what he needed.

"I was, er, wondering," he seemed to know the answer before he even asked it, "Will I be able to get my- my hand back?" he swallowed.

Mme. Pomfrey's face fell, "No, I'm afraid no magic at this time can grow back lost limbs. If your hand would have been severed then I could have put it back then but seeing as it was incinerated…"

Harry flung off his bed sheets and swung his legs violently out of his bed. He strode to the door, nearly pushing over Mme. Pomfrey and continued walking down the hallway to the Gryffindor common room. All the other students were in classes and he encountered no one. He went straight to the room of requirement.

As he entered he found a chair in a small room facing a fireplace. He sat himself down in it and promptly started to cry. He couldn't believe that he'd been crying so much lately. He thought it childish but he knew that there was not help for it. He didn't know how long he sat there, contemplating different things.

He though of Sirius and his death. He though that he'd gotten over it but he realized that he still hadn't fully gotten over it.

He thought of Bellatrix. Sure he had wanted her dead but did he really want he mangled and dismembered beyond recognition. He'd beaten her to a pulp, and beyond. What kind of monster was hidden within him? Did he really even want to have all that power if it meant turning into the savage brute that he had become?

He though too of his hand, or his stub as he would have to learn to call it. Why did he have to loose his hand? Fortunately it had been his right hand. He both held his wand and wrote with his left hand. Fortunate? What was he talking about? He'd lost his hand!

But oddly enough the loss of his hand was not the forerunner of his thoughts. They were still in the hospital wing where he knew Bellatrix's body lay mangled. He didn't even care that it was Bellatrix. He was a murderer. He never wanted to become a murderer, especially after he found out that he would either kill or be killed by Voldemort.

And yet here he was, scarcely two months later and he'd already killed someone. And 'killed' didn't even begin to do what Harry had done justice.

Harry hadn't studied the room carefully and if he had he would have seen a pensive on the table beside him. He noticed it now. He'd always wanted one of these since starting occlumency with Snape and he didn't want to have the memory of his savagery any longer. He kept replaying the battle in his mind watching Bellatrix become less and less distinguishable.

He pointed his wand to his temple and concentrated on the memory. He then extracted a silvery strand from his head and placed it in the pensive. He'd never done it before and never really gave much though to what he was doing. That eased his mind immensely and he gathered up his Gryffindor courage and headed back to the common room to face his friends. Since Mme. Pomfrey had applied a healing salve to Harry's stub his skin had already grown around where his hand had been severed. Other than the fact that his hand had gone missing he looked normal.

He had been in the room of requirement for most of the day and classes had ended half an hour ago. He walked up dreadingly to the portrait of the fat lady and said the password and she swung aside to let him past.

The common room was fairly full and everyone was engulfed in friendly chatter. But the moment Harry stepped in the room fell silent. He'd made sure to walk in left hand first in case anyone was looking. Now what? He saw no other way around it and stepped fully into the room revealing what Ginny obviously had told no one.

Gasps filled the room as everyone saw what had happened to Harry, several of the younger girls fainted. Harry wasn't about to stand around and let himself become a freak show.

Head high, eyes challenging anyone who dared to say something to him, he walked across the room to the boy's dormitory stairs. All eyes were on him. He walked up to where his room was and entered, making sure to close the door behind him. He had assumed the room empty but was shocked to discover otherwise.

"Neville?" Harry asked the boy, who was shaking worse than Harry had ever seen him do, "Are you okay?"

"Harry," said Neville tentatively, "I- you- I took your hand from you."

Harry saw the logic in what Neville was saying. Even though he would have died if he had acted he was still loyal to Harry. But on the other hand, hang on, thanks to that kid I've lost my hand, there is no other hand and he shall suffer! Yes, I'll finish him worse than that Bellatrix I slaughtered the other night! He deserves it after what he did to me!

Neville did not like the grin that was spreading across Harry's face. Without warning the green fire flared into existence and Harry's eyes had once again gone steely.

"Harry! Please! Stop!" attempted Neville desperately.

Harry grinned wider; he would have put Malfoy to shame with the sinister grin now planted on his mouth. Harry gathered his two hands together and was about to throw a flame ball when suddenly the door flung open.

"Harry, stop!" cried Ginny as she saw the situation at hand.

Now how would I like to finish off the one who had cost me my hand? Perhaps a fireball, that seems fitting. And extra painful one at that. Harry clasped his hands in the other and nearly had it off when he heard it, distant and far away. "Harry, stop!"

He recognized that voice and found himself being drawn towards it until he was in his room at Hogwarts. The steely glaze was gone. He was 'good' Harry once more.

"Ginny?" he asked, Ginny looked like she was about ready to break down and flung herself away from Harry as he moved to hug her. She ran rapidly down the stairs.

Neville who was at the far side of the room has worked his way silently to the door and followed Ginny out. Harry couldn't believe he'd lost it again. He needed to explain things to Ginny.

He waited several minutes then grabbed his pensive and headed downstairs to see if she was around. He ignored the stares that the others were sending his way and looked for Ginny. He did not see her in the common room so he headed up the stairs to find Ginny in her room. It never occurred to him that the stairs let him up.

He knocked on the door and when nobody answered he entered, nobody was there. He walked over to Ginny's bed, the one with GW embroidered onto the blankets, and sat down with his head in his hands. He looked at her night side table and found several pictures of all her brothers, Hermione and even Luna. Harry was disappointed to discover no picture of his own.

Until he saw some scraps on the floor. After a quick 'reparo' he saw that the picture was indeed of him. Ginny, obviously in 1st or 2nd year at the time had drawn a heart with the letters HP + GW in the middle, on the back of the photo. He repaired the frame as well and took the picture to his room.

Again he did not notice that the stairs let him up or more importantly that he had left his pensive on Ginny's bedside table.

Ginny had run straight to her room after Harry had nearly killed Neville. She couldn't believe it! He would have been a murderer. She had comforted him earlier that summer about having to kill Voldemort, she sickened at the though. Why would he want to harm his friend Neville? He wasn't the boy she'd though he was. She tore his picture to shreds and ran to the prefect's bathroom where she closed the door and locked it.

It wasn't until the rest of the castle was asleep that she finally emerged from the bathroom and wandered back up too her room. It was evident when she walked in that someone had left something that didn't belong. She noticed the pensive right away and looked at it. Having never seen a pensive herself she didn't know what to make of it.

But when she looked in she saw some shimmering silver liquid. She couldn't resist the temptation to lean in close enough to touch it. Then she felt herself being pulled into the pensive.

She was in the hospital wing. Suddenly she, Ginny, came in the door to warn Harry about the death eater attack. She watched the entire scene unfold, from him knocking her unconscious, Harry's savage attack on Bellatrix, his fight with Neville and finally the loss of his hand.

When she withdrew she had no doubt in her mind that she never wanted to speak to Harry ever again. Sure Bellatrix was a death eater but to disfigure someone like that. She didn't even want to think about it.

She stayed up most the night until she finally cried herself to sleep.

The next day proved to be Harry's hardest day ever. The entire school knew he had done something to merit the loss of 100 points and a month's worth of detention. The only thing Harry was glad of was that the headmaster had kept everything quiet and it seemed that not even the rest of the staff knew what happened. Just him, Dumbledore and Neville. Or so he thought.

Ginny was quiet the entire day as well although nobody really seemed to notice her. She still wasn't over seeing Harry in 'monster mode' and she wasn't sure she ever would be.

Harry was scheduled for transfiguration that morning but Dumbledore came over to Gryffindor table to inform Harry that he requested his presence in his office during first class.

Harry wouldn't talk to anyone, even the ever persistently prying Hermione. Ron and Hermione soon gave up and hurried off to transfiguration before McGonagall got angry.

Harry walked slowly to the headmaster's office. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to enjoy this discussion very much. As he approached the gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office it jumped aside for him. Apparently Dumbledore had been expecting him.

As he walked in the first thing he noticed that the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk had leather straps all over it to restrain people. The second was that Dumbledore was sitting across the table from the chair. There was no joy in his disposition.

"Please, take a seat Harry. I will explain the restraint devices in a moment." He said.

Harry reluctantly took the spot across from Dumbledore.

"Now, there are several things I want to talk about. First of which is your Apparation license. You will need to wait until your 17th birthday to receive it now. I have decided that until a current problem is resolved you will be unfit for it. And also, there is no need for you to become an implantant any more since you have displayed that you can do wandless magic anyways."

"The Second thing I wanted to talk about was your aunt. She is being forced to learn magic and is advancing rapidly and will soon be at the level that you were at the end of your first year. When she reaches 7th year level then she will be sent back to her home with her apparation license. Since she is after all, magical."

"The third thing, one moment please," he flicked his wand as the chair Harry was sitting in and it bound him tightly, "Is your power. You recall the prophecy as well as I. "But he will have power that the dark lord knows not." At first I believed this to be the well of power that you had recently broken into that day in Diagon Alley. But it would seem that I am wrong." Said Dumbledore sadly.

He paused, and Harry squirmed uncomfortably. The chair wasn't getting any softer and the leather bindings were starting to hurt.

"For upon closer examination I realized that he will have power _that the dark lord knows not_. And yet he had seen you that day in Diagon Alley, how then could he not know these powers? And then I realized it, the power that the dark lord knows not isn't power at all, it is _a_ power. The power of love." He paused, whether it was to think or for dramatic effect Harry did not know.

"The power of love. Voldemort does in fact, not know the power of love so I find it highly likely that this is the power of with the prophecy speaks, not your newfound well of power. In fact I have a theory about the power you have found."

"Sir," interjected Harry, "Um, do you think you could take these off? They're getting kind of tight."

"No Harry," replied Dumbledore, "You will keep them on until I am finished speaking to you."

Who did he think he was? Talking to he, Harry Potter like that. It was he that that Longbottom fool had protected before he had had his hand removed! He would suffer.

Harry's green fire burst outwards but just as quickly died, flickered, died, flickered, then went out for good. And it left Harry drained of all energy.

"What just happened sir?" asked Harry, shocked, "I feel all tired!"

"That was your 'power' kicking in. It is for that reason that you are wearing the leather restraints around your wrists during this meeting. Otherwise you may have dealt me a serious or perhaps even fatal blow. I'm sorry but it was necessary." Said Dumbledore informatively.

"Yeah, sure, no problem. You were saying?" asked Harry as though nothing had happened.

"Well, my theory is this; when you are angry then your power comes to life. But I think that this power is more of a curse than a blessing. When Voldemort first cast the killing curse on you he transferred some of his powers and characteristics on to you. The second time he hit you he transferred more of his powers and characteristics to you. But they only seem to come to life when you are angry."

"I see, that makes sense since when I am in 'monster mode' I feel the same way as when I am seeing what Voldemort is seeing, like in a vision like last year. So what am I going to do about it, I can't just attack random people whenever I get angry." Said Harry.

"There are two possible solutions." Said Dumbledore, "Don't get angry or wear these leather restraints everywhere you go. If we can train these powers to be used at will and controllably then you will be a very fine wizard indeed! But until then…" finished Dumbledore as he handed Harry four leather bracelets, "Wear these around your wrists and ankles.

Harry snatched them from him and turned and exited the room without a backward glance earning a few 'Really!' 'I say!' and other similar comments from the previous headmasters' portraits.

Harry was in a foul mood and the rest of the school was giving him his distance and nobody questioned his wearing the leather bracelets. Everyone that is except Malfoy who would bump into him on a regular basis in-between classes. Which left Harry constantly drained since his anger would flare up and then the bracelets would sap his strength.

Finally come Friday he found that he was able to not loose control once that day and was feeling pretty good about himself. Sure his friends hadn't been talking to him lately and he was doing miserably in all his classes. But nonetheless he found himself looking forward to the next day's quidditch captain tryouts.

Saturday also passed for the most part uneventfully. Harry spent most of his time working on his homework assignments. Although he had moved on from being Snape's enemy didn't change the way he was picked on in class. Harry had lost already 155 points for Gryffindor including his 100 points. Hermione would glare at him when he answered a question incorrectly but other than that she stayed clear of him.

He had nearly finished his last essay for McGonagall when the clock ticked around to 6 o'clock and it was time to head down to the quidditch pitch. He grabbed his trusty firebolt and took to the pitch.

There was an average sized crowd assembled for the tryouts. Harry counted around 25. He spotted Ron and Ginny amongst the crowd but kept to himself. Cho was also present. Most of the other students were in their later years but there were the odd 2nd or 3rd year student looking extremely intimidated.

Harry didn't have to wait long before Mme. Hooch walked out of the official's tent and onto the field.

"Glad to see so many of you out here today," she beamed at them, "First order of business, team managers. There will be, as you know, six teams and each team will have one team manager or more specifically, teacher. So not only will you be judged on your flying abilities but you will also have a short interview with each of the six managers, who have already been selected. They are Professors McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, Flitwick, Dumbledore and myself."

Harry decided if he had a choice he'd like to play for McGonagall or Dumbledore.

"I will be rating," continued Mme. Hooch, "On your flying abilities and strategy in a skirmish. 14 of you will stay to play while the others will go for interviews then we will switch up after all the interviews are completed. Any questions?"

The interviews were not really all that difficult for Harry. When it was his turn with Snape, neither uttered a word. Harry knew that he would as soon nominate Harry a quidditch captain as streak the international quidditch cup match. It was his turn with Dumbledore next.

Once he was seated Dumbledore began the interview.

"Tell me Harry," He said, "Why should I pick you to be a captain?"

"Well sir," said Harry, trying his best to sound formal, "I have never yet failed to catch the snitch not counting the one time the dementors attacked the pitch and I've proven to be a very dedicated member of the Gryffindor quidditch team since my first year."

"Yes, all very impressive but if you've never missed the snitch yet then you must have a miss waiting for you quite soon. And you can't tell me that your catch when you caught it in your mouth was pure skill can you?"

Harry wanted to hurt him again; he could feel himself loosing control. No! He couldn't loose control; he wouldn't have any energy for the practical part of the tryout. He breathed outwards deeply.

"Very good Harry, it seems that you are learning to control your emotions." You will have my vote, "Move along now."

And finally the interviews were over and it was time for the on-broom part of the tryout. Harry played seeker and was facing off against a gangly 5th year boy from Hufflepuff that he did not recognize.

"Here's how things are going to work," started Mme. Hooch, "I'm going to release the balls and then the game will begin, I will officiate as well at watch your skills, if the snitch is caught then the catching seeker will release it and wait 4 minutes before resuming the search."

The game went fairly fast paced seeing as these were all the people trying out for captain. Harry caught the snitch twice and the other boy had surprised Harry with a good feint before catching it once himself.

About 1-½ hours into the game Mme. Hooch called out that the next snitch catch would end the match. It was about ten minutes before Harry finally saw it. He started for it but the Hufflepuff was beside him in an instant and he had the better angle since he had seen which way Harry had been looking.

'He's a sneaky one!' Harry though. Not that he wasn't sneakier though. He started off to the right, away from the snitch until he was going straight away from the snitch. He smiled to himself, he almost felt sorry for the 5th year, almost. He'd been thinking of quidditch all day and this was the perfect opportunity to use a new move he had though of.

Suddenly Harry jumped full off his broom and swung his leg sideways, kicking his broom into a 180° turn and landed again on his broom, backwards but going the right way and doing it in such a fashion he was able to maintain his high speed.

He leaned over backwards so he could see forwards. He was in luck; the ball was hovering just 6 feet above the ground. He launched himself off of his broom again into a back flip snatching up the snitch in midair. He smiled; he had forgotten how good it felt to fly.

They were back in the common room several minutes later. Ron, who had been playing keeper at the time, came over to congratulate him and all was quickly forgiven between the two. They headed back to the common room for a good night's sleep.

The next morning at breakfast, many people were present early, despite the fact that there were no classes that day. Once the hall was nearly filled Dumbledore stood.

"I would like to take this time to announce this year's quidditch captains and their team managers. The player's were selected based on their interviews and their interviews alone but were ranked on their on-pitch skills. The first ranked player will get first choice of their first teammate. The first ranked captain, team manager being Professor McGonagall is Harry Potter."

The hall, minus Slytherin erupted into cheers but died down quickly in anticipation of the next captain.

"Followed by Draco Malfoy whose manager will be Professor Snape. Next we have Justin Finch-Fletchly whose manager will be Professor Sprout. Then Abigail Harrison whose manager will be Professor Flitwick. Next is Jennifer Thompson, managed by myself and lastly Jeffery Remington managed by Mme. Hooch. It will be up to the tryouts for the various positions will be held next Saturday once again at 7 o'clock."

The hall filled with excited chatter. Two Gyrffindors had made captain. Jennifer Thompson was a fourth year Gryffindor. His peers congratulated Harry from all sides, some, those who had tried for captain, only half-heartedly so. Harry was glad that everyone was treating him the same as before now. None of them knew what had happened that day in the hospital wing.

Except Ginny. Who had still kept to herself ever since she had seen the vision in the pensive. She had returned it to his room the next day so that he didn't get suspicious. But she was almost repulsed by Harry, how could he be so cruel?

Harry was for the most part enjoying being congratulated by his friends but he was somewhat saddened by that fact that Ginny hadn't come to do so as well. In fact she hadn't been talking to him for a while. He decided to talk to her later and to enjoy himself for the moment.

He spent the rest of the day researching amputations in the library. As much as he was pleased with himself he was still very lost. Looking down at his wrist and seeing no hand sent shivers up his spine every time. He just couldn't go on like this! He felt so empty. But he found from his research that nobody had ever replaced a hand that was destroyed, even in the magical world.

When he was leaving he saw Ginny sitting in the corner of the room doing her homework by herself so he decided that now was a good a time as any to talk with her.

"Hey Ginny." He greeted her, "What are you working on? I know that OWL year can be a lot of work."

"Oh, just some defense work, buy I don't need any help, you can go do whatever you were going to do."

"What if what I was going to do was help you out with your homework?" he replied casually.

"Then you can leave, I don't need any help." She said.

"Why don't you want my help?" he asked.

Ginny sighed. She may as well tell him what she'd seen, she was miserable lately; "Because you're a bloodthirsty brutal murderer!" she said it all in a whisper giving it a very dramatic effect.

Harry was shocked. How could she know about that? Sure she had seen him flare up on Neville but all the same, he hadn't actually done anything.

"What?" was all Harry could manage.

"You heard me," said Ginny firmly, "I don't know how it got there but I found your pensive in my room."

Ginny slammed her book shut and left the room in a fury. And left Harry sitting there with his hands in his head.

'That would explain it,' he though, 'that would explain it.'


	8. DA Reborn

A/N: I realized a mistake I made in my story the other day. In Neville's chapter the type of gum is Trident but I just remembered that it's Drooble's or something like that in the book. Just though I'd let you all know. I tried to get this chapter out ASAP since you seemed so intent to hear what happened but I had a long chapter planned out here so I shortened it down a bit. The next chapter will be much longer to include what I skipped out this time around. The plot really starts to get going next chapter. Anyways, here's the chapter.

Chapter 8: DA Reborn

Harry's weekend soon came to a close; he'd finished all his homework to both Hermione's and his own surprise. But their homework load was substantially less this year than it had been the last and Harry was grateful for it. He most certainly wasn't looking forward to his NEWT year.

"Harry," Hermione asked Sunday night, "when are you thinking of starting up the DA again?"

"Hmm," said Harry, "I actually hadn't though about it all that much since we got back. When's the next Hogsmead weekend? I could call a meeting then."

"That sounds good, it's in two weeks so you'll have time to prepare what you want to say to everyone."

"Hey Harry," said Ron, finishing his paper for defense, "Are we taking in any new members this year or are we keeping it the same people as last year?"

"Well, Dumbledore gave me permission to run the group so I guess we could invite the whole school if we wanted but I'd rather keep it down to just our core group."

"Actually Harry" Hermione said, "That may not be such a bad idea. Inviting the whole school, I mean."

"Are you daft?" Harry stared at her incredulously, "Me teach the entire school? I'm sure that'd be a hoot, Malfoy shows up and starts hexing everyone and nobody can hear me since everyone is running around screaming. That's a great idea Hermione!"

"Hmm, that does seem like the sort of thing that Malfoy would do, just to get a rise out of you. But the whole school has the right to know how to defend themselves."

"True but as much as I hate to admit it, Snape's actually an alright defense teacher." Said Harry.

"Oh, sure he is but that doesn't make up for the last 5 years' professors though," responded Hermione, "Let's just keep it down to the core group for now but we'll ask them what they think in two weeks. Sounds good?"

"Sure"

And they left it at that, as much as Harry knew that he was a pretty good teacher, teaching the entire school just didn't appeal! And then there was all the Slytherin who would probably take this opportunity to throw insults at Harry. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized how much the student body needed his experience.

But he had more pressing matters on his mind than the two weeks distant, DA meeting. First and foremost was Ginny, the one person who he'd like the most to not be angry with him, the only one who actually _was_ angry with him, aside from Neville, who was still terrified of him. He needed to do something to make it up to her but he couldn't think of what. He sat there until 10:30 that night thinking; he just didn't know what to do. Look how he and Cho had turned out! He most certainly didn't want a repeat.

The next week rolled by a little more quickly than the first. The friends found that as much as the teachers insisted the sixth year came with much less homework than the previous one. Ginny was struggling to keep up with her mound of homework every night and relied constantly on Hermione and even Ron's help.

But she would always tell Harry that he needed to be doing something else trying her best to sound polite so that nobody else would realize what she had discovered.

Quidditch tryouts had gone very well. All of the captains had stayed on the pitch below to watch the players. They had started with the keepers since Harry had first pick and he wanted Ron on his team he picked keepers.

So the keepers blocked shots from the chasers who were trying out all tried to score on the twelve keepers that tried out. Harry felt sorry that not all of them would make it but he already knew whom he was picking. Ron was actually in the upper running of keepers. He blocked the most shots out of all of them. So it was really a no-brainer for Harry as to whom he picked.

After all the keepers had been selected it was Malfoy, who had come in second to choose the beaters next, who would be picked in pairs, making it impossible for Harry to take a Gryffindor duo. And seeing as he had last choice he took two Hufflepuffs by the names of Jacob and Lex. The two were really quite good and given some practice Harry though they could be great.

Next it was the seekers. Harry didn't need to pick one but observed them all anyways since he would need to select a reserve seeker.

And finally the chasers. Harry had fourth pick for the first round and he hoped that Ginny would still be left. She had flown very well. First pick and second pick passed taking some younger but speedy players. Next it was Jeffery Rimmington's turn. He looked at Ginny and for a moment Harry was sure that he was going to take her but he chose a bulky looking Slytherin boy instead.

Harry didn't hesitate in selecting Ginny who tried to look pleased but silently she wished that Rimmington had chosen her. She walked over to Ron and he congratulated her but she never said a word to Harry. He then chose two Ravenclaws, Terry Boot and his friend Helaine.

Harry used all of his Slytherin picks on reserves along with a Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. He was content with his team and believed that they could do well this year. But then he remembered that Ginny and he were still at odds and he deflated. The sooner he could think of a way to make up with her, the better.

The time in between quidditch tryouts and the first Hogsmead weekend passed gruelingly. To say his Occlumency lessons with Snape had been unpleasant was the equivalent to saying that Voldemort was a decent duelist.

Both Neville and Ginny ignored him. Both for very different reasons. In Ginny's case, anger at his betrayal and in Neville's just plain fear. So it was with a heavy heart that he trudged into Hogsmead that day.

Even stopping by at Honeyduke's and Zonko's couldn't lighten his mood. Hermione and Ron tried their best to lighten him up but they were failing miserably. Finally they stopped by the Three Broomsticks where all of last years DA members joined up with Harry and his two friends. Harry had decided to have the meeting there this year seeing as Mundungus had overheard them the year previous in the Hog's Head.

He was relieved to see Ginny and Neville amongst the onlookers when it was time for his opening speech. He wasn't so happy to see Cho and her friend Marietta as well.

"Well," he said, not quite sure what to say that might have the most dramatic effect, "I think it's about time we started up the DA once more, sure we've got a decent defense against the dark arts teacher this year but we can't settle for mediocrity we must strive to become the most talented wizards possible now with Voldemort out in the open."

Harry was pleased to see that not one student flinched or even batted an eye at Harry as he said the Dark Lords name aloud. He smiled and continued on, "So how many of you want to continue meeting for DA this year, if it's an added bonus, I have professor Dumbledore's permission to carry on with it."

Everyone put up their hands and Harry filled with pride, "Good, now this year I have two ideas for our group. We will have the 'original' DA along with another DA available to all students and taught by various members of the original DA. Any opinions on the matter?"

"I think that's a good idea Harry," piped up Neville, much to Harry's and everyone else's surprise, "Everyone should be able to defend himself or herself in this upcoming war. Every person we teach is not only able to protect themselves but also those around them saving more than just their own lives."

The group murmured their consent and Harry took a vote. The group was mostly in favor of allowing any of the student body to join only Michael Corner, Cho and Marietta voted against it.

"We'll all take turns teaching the new DA and will still continue with our own meetings in the room of requirement, the new members will always meet on the same days and will not require our galleons. I'm sure you all still know how to work them."

He turned to Hermione, but she couldn't think of anything left to say and smiled encouragingly at Harry while he concluded the meeting.

When it was over the three friends got up and made their way to a new location that Quality Quidditch Supplies had set up across the street called 'Quality Quidditch Quipment' or QQQ. Harry and Ron entered with great interest and Hermione, much less so. Ron picked up a device that could be strapped onto your wrist while riding a broom and while you were in contact with it you would float as it did.

This, Ron claimed, would enable him to jump off his broom to make longer distance saves, as long as he had one hand on his broom. Harry picked up a book called 'Broom Modification' to see if he could do something to improve his Firebolt or perhaps even one of the 'Slugs' that he had purchased.

The two were so engrossed that at first they didn't even hear the screams coming from the opposite side of the street. Hermione came running over to them, a panicked look on her face.

"They're attacking Hogsmead!" she said. Harry and Ron didn't need to be told more and they rushed out the door to see a group of Death Eaters enter The Three Broomsticks.

That's when Harry felt a chill go up his spine. Although there were no dementors nearby that chill had been worse than if there had been one. For with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach he remembered that Neville, Luna and Ginny had stayed in the Three Broomsticks to chat after the meeting. And there was no mistaking Ginny's scream.

Before he had time to think of a proper plan he rushed in after the five Death Eaters that had entered just moments before. He could not be stopped; he was a man on a mission.

He ran into the door but it wouldn't budge. He reprimanded himself for using such muggle means and used an alohamora on the door before rushing in. He saw Neville, Luna and Ginny all still sitting at the table in the corner that the meeting had been conducted at and saw also that the place was mostly empty except for their table and several other occupied tables.

But then he looked at the ground and saw two Ravenclaw second years laying motionless on the floor.

"NO!" he screamed, if only he hadn't tried to break down the door he could have been in time to save these unsuspecting students. But now was not the time to think about it, there were people to be saved. Luckily for him Neville, Luna and Ginny had been in the DA so they would also be able to help him as well.

As the death eaters saw that the three students at the back of the room would become a nuisance they decided to head there first so Harry ran over there at top speed, knocking over several tables and chairs in his haste. The three were holding their own rather well Harry though. Neville was dueling for two and the two girls were struggling to hold back the other three and it was obvious that the three, even with Neville's help couldn't hold out long.

Harry quickly took one out with a well-aimed stunner and sent another down before the other three realized what was going on. Just when Harry though that things were under control a trio of death eaters entered to take up their place.

"You three take these ones and I'll try to hold off these ones!" Harry instructed to the others.

The new death eater on the right sent a cutting curse at Harry which he dodged expertly then fired a full body-bind at him but he sent it away without a though.

"One…Two…Three!" the center Death eater shouted. On three the bunch of them sent another round of cutting curses at Harry. He was sure there was no avoiding them they had been sent at perfect places to make it impossible for him to dodge.

"Accio table!" Harry commanded, the table flew to him were he placed it in front of him quickly. He felt the cuts reach him but they were barley scratches by the time the reached him. He dropped the table but none of the three death eaters was there.

A quick look around the room told him that the only people left in the building were his three friends and the six remaining death eaters, what? Six? He realized with a start that his three death eaters had gone over there. He also saw with satisfaction that Luna and Neville had just taken down a couple of them, leaving four.

He ran to join his friends, Neville looked over at Harry for a moment and when he was off his guard he was caught with a stray stunner. He slumped to the ground. Luna, beside him turned to look at him and she was caught by a cutting curse.

Harry grimaced. This wasn't looking promising. He and Ginny went back to back to better see all around them so they couldn't get hit from behind. They were blocking all the spells sent at them and had managed to take down one more.

But Harry had been summoning many of the tables and chairs around the room to his and Ginny's defense and the death eaters soon grew wise to this trick.

One of the three remaining used the incinerating charm on the remaining tables and chairs and anything else in the room so there was nothing left. The death eaters pressed back onto the attack and soon Ginny and Harry found themselves against the wall and were forced to leave their back-to-back position.

Harry was holding off two of them while Ginny struggled against the other. It was all Harry could do to keep her and him safe. He was about to block a cutting curse aimed at himself when he heard two words he most certainly did not want to hear.

"Avada Kedavra!" shouted the center death eater.

Harry had little time to think. But he made the best of his time.

"Accio evil guy!" he shouted and the death eater the furthest to the left started flying towards him. Harry did this just in time so that he flew right through the path that the center death eater had just sent his killing curse. Of course, there was the downside to this heroic plan. Two of them in fact. That was the first time he'd ever killed a man of his own free will. And secondly, he had been unable to block the cutting curse, which promptly sliced across chest and sliced off the stump of his hand causing it to flow like a river.

He dropped to his knee from blood loss. He had spots over his vision. He couldn't leave Ginny now! He had to protect her! The green fire attempted to come to life but it wouldn't seeing as he was wearing his bracelets. NO! He would not let this happen!

This time the emerald flames burst through and his bracelets were reduced to leather shreds.

He felt different somehow from the other two times when he had lost his anger. He had not felt himself, or fully in control of his emotions. The fire died down and became simply a green aura around him. But the most miraculous thing of all was that he had somehow re-grown his own hand. Good as new! Without 'I will not tell lies' inscribed upon it.

The death eaters seemed somewhat intimidated but the attacked while Harry was marveling at his control in his 'monster form'. He was caught with an expelliarmus completely unawares and his wand flew directly to the castor who snapped it in two then threw it resolutely on the floor.

Harry ran at the man who had broken his wand. He was glad at this time that Professor Verplank had been giving him and Neville magical martial arts training. He thrust his fist into the death eaters gut and when he keeled over Harry thrust his knee into his face. When he slumped to the floor, Harry considered him incapacitated.

As much as martial arts was effective he much preferred magic so he decided a wand was in order.

"Accio wand," he said and half of his wand came towards him, "Accio _other_ half of my wand." Then the other half flew towards him, "Reparo!"

And then his wand was fixed. But then it dawned on him that he hadn't actually needed his wand for that bit of magic so he quickly stowed it and sent a stunner at the last remaining death eater.

He had been stunned with Harry's wandless magic and martial arts skills ages before Harry's stunner caught him in the chest but that finalized it. As he too slumped over. But then Harry noticed that he disappeared. And upon closer inspection, the others had too, even the one that had been hit with the killing curse. Harry suspected port keys but he couldn't be sure.

But he didn't have much more time for thinking as he soon found that his fire had gone out and that blood loss was once again affecting him. But he didn't care at the moment. He was overjoyed. He'd gotten his hand back!

He heard Ginny kneel down beside him and take his head in her lap. Harry though for a moment that he had a cut on his face but realized vaguely that Ginny was crying.

"I'm sorry I ever doubted you Harry." She said.

"Dobby" said Harry, which was meant to sound like, 'don't be' but he was loosing consciousness fast. After that he knew nothing, although he could have sworn that he had felt something soft brush across his cheek but that could have just been his imagination.

He awoke, you guessed it, in the hospital wing. When he woke up, nobody was around waiting for him. Which was actually nice for a change. But upon closer examination he found that all of his friends who had been present at the Three Broomsticks were currently all lying in beds as well. Except, of course, Ginny who had not sustained any major injuries.

It was about ten minutes before Mme. Pomfrey entered and stared at him.

"I've never seen anything like this!" she proclaimed, "First, you get your hand back and then you heal up a full on cutting curse without so much as a scratch? I'm beginning to wonder if you're immortal Mr. Potter!"

"Well, something like that." He replied with a chuckle. Mme. Pomfrey regarded him strangly for a moment then made her decision, "By the looks of it, you're fully healed, you're free to go."

Harry gave a small victory cheer before being scolded by Mme. Pomfrey for disturbing the others the he walked towards the Gryffindor common room. He was in such a good mood that he waved to a suit of armor on the way. The strange thing was, the suit gave him the thumbs up. But not even that could dampen his mood, not that it should have.

As he walked into the common room people seemed to treat him like some sort of hero or something. He walked deliberately over to the side of the room where he had seen Ginny again working on some homework.

He sat down across the table from her. This was so much easier when he hadn't 'liked' her.

"Er, Hey," he managed.

She looked up and saw him. Harry's heart was beating at 100 miles an hour. And then she smiled. Which did very little to slow his heart rate. In fact the butterflies, which he had just acquired in his stomach, had a negative effect if anything.

"Uh, you," he stumbled, "You want to go work on that in the library?" he said looking around the filled common room at all the staring faces.

"Sure Harry," she smiled again, how was it possible that this had more effect on him than a 60-foot long basilisk? "I'm just working on some defense stuff, you're pretty good at that."

"Yeah, sure, well, I mean, I'm not, I mean, I guess I, well, I don't mean to brag," this was not going good!

Ginny giggled, "Well, come on then," Harry was grateful that she probably thought him clumsy thanks to her seeing his pensive.

When they reached the library Harry had clamed down a bit.

"Okay, I may have forgiven you Harry but I still would like to know what I saw in your pensive that night." Said Ginny seriously.

"All right, here it is," sighed Harry, "Ever since the attack in Diagon alley I've had some more of Voldemort's powers passed down to me since I've survived his killing curse twice. Unfortunately the power only activated if I was angry and when it did activate I had no control over it. But just today I think I discovered the secret and from now on I'll probably be able to control it more effectively. What you saw in my pensive was the first time I ever got controlled by my powers. The time when I nearly, nearly hurt Neville was the second."

"I'm glad to hear you've gotten it under control then," said Ginny, "It's a good thing you've got such a strong personality, otherwise you'd probably still be under it's control."

Harry tried his best not to blush, "But I was wondering Ginny, have you heard whether or not any other death eaters were in the village?"

Ginny's smile faded, "No, there were no other death eaters. But the ones that came into the Three Broomsticks later managed to kill five people before they came. And two students were killed by death eaters in the Three Broomsticks."

Harry deflated, just when everything was seemingly going his way, "Neither can live while the other survives" he said aloud. Ginny looked sadly at him.

"I feel sorry for you Harry, you must feel like every single death in this war is your responsibility or something."

"I'm fully aware of that!" said Harry, raising his tone without raising the volume as to not disturb the library, "It's not like I need a constant reminder that the entire fate of the wizarding community rests on my shoulders!"

He got up and pushed his chair in. He was already several steps away form the library doors before Ginny caught up to him and grabbed his arm.

"Harry, wait!" she said, "I didn't mean it like that. There's nobody I'd rather have fight the last fight against Voldemort than you!"

This made Harry stop and look at her, he realized how fast he was to lose his temper, "I'm sorry," he said, "I should blow my top like that, I know that sometimes I may do it anyways but please don't take it personally, it's my fault I've such a bad temper. I didn't mean what I said just now."

Ginny just nodded.

"Now how about that defense?" asked Harry grinning. Ginny nodded again but this time a little less seriously and allowed Harry to lead her back into the library.

It didn't take long before Harry had explained the theory behind the disillusionment charm and they were happily on their way back to the Gryffindor common room when they saw an odd sight.

Snape. Well, not directly Snape but he was looking very flustered and he _never_ left his dungeons if he didn't need to. So it startled both Harry and Ginny that he was about. The exchanged glances and immediately knew what the other was thinking. Let's see what Snape's up to.

They tailed him at a distance all the way to the headmaster's office where he gave the password, puking pasties, and entered.

"Where's a pair of extendable ears when you need them?" asked Harry to no one in particular.

"I know what you mean, maybe we should just wait around here to see if anything else happens."

And as though she was a seer about two minutes later Snape emerged, once again looking even more flustered. In fact it was probably due to this that he never even noticed that Harry and Ginny were right there in front of the stone gargoyle statue waiting for him.

He made his way hastily towards the tallest tower on the castle, next to the astronomy tower, and opened the door to the outside top of the tower and exited. Harry and Ginny followed more cautiously behind after being placed under a disillusionment charm by Harry.

Outside was an ordinary rooftop but the thing that made this one different was that there was a unicorn carved into the floor. Snape looked around him as if he was paranoid of someone sneaking up on him. If he wouldn't have been so panicked he probably would have been able to see Harry and Ginny through Harry's hastily and sloppy disillusionment charm. He then stepped in front of the unicorn and waved his wand in a lying down eight sign.

Then the strangest thing happened. Almost identical to the way the chamber of secrets opened the floor opened itself and a beam was projected out of the hole and it was reflected off of a mirror over top of it and bounced off of a series of mirrors until it struck the unicorn's horn. Then a huge tower, seemingly out of nowhere, grew out of the ground.

The first thing that came to Harry's mind was, 'Wow!' the second was, 'what is Snape doing?' He looked over at Ginny and she was still looking intently at the beam of light.

"Ginny," he whispered seeing as they were out of earshot, "What do you recon that tower is?"

"What tower Harry?" she asked.

"The tower that just sprang up out of nowhere!" he said pointing, even though she couldn't see him, "You must be able to see it!"

"No Harry, I can't. Oh!" she gasped. For at that moment Snape had entered the door that had sprung up off the side of the tower out into the air. So if Ginny really couldn't see it, it would look to her as if Snape had just stepped into thin air and then vanished as he closed the door.

"Ginny," said Harry, "You stay right here, I'm going to see what the old bat's up to."

Harry assumed that she had nodded and proceeded to the door through witch Snape had preceded. He heard Ginny gasp again as he stepped into the doorway and closed the door. He was in a magnificent hallway made of marble.

It had huge pillars on all sides; in fact it was round and had three stories of balconies that over looked the central area. There was an enormous glass dome on top and all of the walls were lined with shelves of books.

In the center of the room was a table shaped just like the room with chairs all around. It was made in solid mahogany, which complimented the black-flecked, white marble floor and the royal red carpet quite well.

"Potter," drawled a familiar voice, "you couldn't possible hope to conceal yourself with that crude attempt at a disillusionment charm could you?"

Harry turned to face Severus Snape, "Professor" he greeted cordially.

"Skip the formalities Potter," he sneered, "I knew you were following me since the headmaster's office but I didn't care since I was in a hurry and I though I'd loose you at the unicorn. I'm the only one in the school who's ever been in this room before, how could you possibly have gotten in?"

"I'm not quite sure sir, I know Ginny couldn't even see the place, only I could, so I followed you in. What is this place anyways?"

"I'm not sure myself actually," Snape started, "In fact, I don't even know why I'm telling _you_ of all people anything."

Harry walked around the room, which actually took a considerable amount of time and Snape watched him all the while.

He found that there was one chair that had a drawer in front of it on the table, he pulled it open and found a dust-covered volume, he took it out and blew what dust he could off of it. So much flew off that he was forced to cough. Snape who had been across the room was immediately standing right over his shoulder.

The book had no title. Harry flipped to the first page and looked at the page, which he saw. It read simply: Too late Potter!


	9. Too Late

A/N: Terribly sorry that this chapter took so long, it didn't even turn out to be very long. I've been sick and I didn't have very much time to work on it and I expect to not have much in the near future either. But I'll try my best to get chapter 10 out ASAP. Yay! 40 000 words. Next stop 60 000…

Chapter 9: Too Late?

Harry stared at the book. Too late? Too late for what? What kind of joke was this? And who had pulled it? Snape was the first to come to his mind and he rounded on him.

"What?" asked Snape, "If I knew any more than you did I'd have done something by now. By the looks of it though you've been had."

"Excellent observation!" said Harry exasperatedly, "Now before you go blaming me for something, what is this place?"

"I told you before, I have no idea."

"Then why are we able to see it and come and go as we please while nobody else can?"

"Good question. Perhaps that book of yours can tell you! Now if you'll excuse me." He glanced meaningfully at the door.

"I'm not going until you either tell me what this place is or come with me to see the headmaster about it."

"Then let's go pay our dear headmaster a visit, seeing as I still don't know what this place is!"

Harry was glad that Snape didn't have his powers otherwise he'd be dead right now. The two made their way down to the stone gargoyle and Harry gave the password, much to Snape's dislike, and they entered. Harry was surprised not to see Ginny around but he supposed that she'd gone back to Gryffindor tower.

Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk. He had an uncanny ability to be sitting at his desk whenever anyone entered his office. Perhaps it was true and he knew everything going on within the school's walls.

"Good evening gentlemen. What can a do for you on a night so fine as this?" he asked.

"Albus, we, or rather, Harry, had a question about the school and a certain part of it," said Snape hesitatingly.

"Ah, and what might that be," he said looking at Harry.

"Well sir it has to do wi-" started Snape.

"-There's a tower that springs up out of nowhere when Snape waves his wand in a lying down eight sign near a unicorn on the second highest tower in the school. Only thing is that only Snape and I can see it."

"Well than the answer would seem obvious, would it not?" asked Dumbledore.

"I'm not sure I follow sir," said Snape, "I've visited the place five times now and I don't even know what it is."

"Obviously neither of you has ever read, _Hogwarts: A History_."

"No sir, can't say I have," replied Harry.

"Well, let me explain then. You know of Salazar's Chamber of Secrets, Godric made his own chamber of honor, and-"

"What! Chamber of Honor? Where is that?" asked Harry, he'd never heard of or seen it before.

"Well, Salazar wouldn't have it. Once he found out where it was he went and destroyed it. The other two founders had helped Godric in his creation of the chamber. But what I was getting at was that, there were two other chambers. Is it so unlikely that another powerful wizard may have wanted his own chamber?"

Harry and Snape waited patiently for the headmaster to continue.

"The founders died around 1000 years ago. Around 700 years ago this young magician came to Hogwarts. There has never been a more powerful wizard before him or after, what could possibly stop the most powerful wizard of all time achieving this small task?"

"It's Merlin," said Harry, almost to himself, "The wizard is Merlin"

"Ah, finally, I though I might have to spell it out for you! But it would seem that you have discovered the chamber of Merlin."

"But that still doesn't explain why only Potter and I can see it." Said Snape irritably.

"But of course it does. You are both his descendants, no?"

"You mean? Me? I'm the? No way!" said Snape jumbled.

"Yes Severus, you're Merlin's most direct descendant, his heir if you will. And Harry here is also one of Merlin's descendants but not the most direct one."

While Snape muttered things to himself and though, Harry pulled out the book that he had found in the 'chamber of Merlin'.

"What do you suppose it means Albus?"

"I'm not sure Harry, but I can tell you that the real book like this is in the enemy's hands. I would not be surprised, taking into consideration where you found it, that it is the book of Merlin."

"The book of Merlin Albus? I seem to recall us talking about that in order meetings over the summer."

"Yes, that is correct Harry. The book contains all of Merlin's greatest works and achievements. Written by none other than the wizard himself. Wormtail was sent to recover it over the summer. But seeing as Severus has been demoted in the death eater ranks several times. He is unaware whether or not he succeeded in finding the book," he paused.

"Though it would seem that he was successful either in retrieving it or in discovering it's resting place."

"We have to get it from him!" said Harry forcefully enough to bring Snape to the same world as them.

"What, from who?" he asked.

"The book of Merlin Severus." Said Dumbledore simply.

"WHAT! That scumbag Wormtail managed to find it?" asked Snape.

"Not likely but he most likely discovered it's whereabouts and reported them to his master who's right hand man is a descendant of Merlin."

"Who?" asked Harry and Snape at that same time, "Who?" asked Harry again.

"Lucious Malfoy. Need I explain more?"

"Draco!" said Harry furiously, "He went and took it and left me with the phony! Oh, he'll pay he will. Expel him sir, he darn well deserves it!"

"I'm sorry Harry, I can't do that. First, we're not even sure it was him. And secondly he's just as entitled to an age old book as you or I are."

"But, but, he's going to, he's practically a death eater himself!"

"Perhaps, but I will not start expelling my students unless the situation is grave."

"Of course Albus."

Snape had watched the exchange with fleeting interest, he didn't care if Malfoy stayed or left. The only reason he pretended to like him was so that Voldemort didn't become suspicious of him joining the other side.

"Well," said Dumbledore at length, "You may go, both of you."

Harry left Dumbledore's office and Snape followed suite ten seconds later. Harry was walking down to the Gryffindor when he heard giggling behind him. He spun around. Nobody. He continued on. More giggling. He spun around again. This time he saw a faint shimmer in the air.

"Finite Encantatum," he said.

Ginny appeared out of thin air giggling like, well, a schoolgirl.

"You little sneak!" accused Harry good-naturedly, "how long have you been following me?"

"Since you left the door that I couldn't see." She replied with a smirk.

"So I guess you've already heard my exciting news first hand then?" he asked.

Her face turned serious, he loved how she always knew how to act, "Yeah, I'll bet Malfoy did take it. I hope the society is able to get it back though. It'd be terrible if he found out anything useful."

"Yeah, I sure hope not, anyways I've got to get back to the common room to tell Ron and Hermione. And I've got to plan for tomorrow evening's all-school DA meeting. I have a bad feeling about that."

"Nonsense Harry, you'll do great, you proved it last year when all the DA did so well on their practical exams."

Harry's ego went up a notch at the compliment, "Thanks, but I still have a bad feeling about this."

When they arrived in the common room Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen so Harry and Ginny sat down in a couple of chairs to do their homework. They were the only ones left in the common room by the time Ron and Hermione traipsed in through the portrait hole. The had been out on prefect duties Harry assumed.

"Malfoy," said Ron as he came to sit down across from Harry and Ginny. He seemed too tired to notice how close together they were sitting. Hermione however noticed and smiled to herself.

"Malfoy what?" asked Harry, "Because if you're about to tell me he's a filthy scumbag that's old news."

"No," said Ron seriously, "We were out doing our rounds when who should saunter up to us but Malfoy. And guess what he says?"

"Happy St. Patrick's Day?" suggested Harry.

"I'm serious here mate! Listen to me! He said that he had something that you want and that if you want it from him then you'd have to duel him and win tomorrow at the public DA in front of the school."

"How would he know?" asked Harry, Ron and Hermione just stared at him but Ginny knew what he meant.

He went on to explain what had transpired earlier that day. And slowly he realized that Malfoy had him in the palm of his hand. He couldn't go to a teacher because they would cancel the meeting and prevent the duel. He couldn't get the book without the duel and he was sure that Malfoy would play it dirty. This wasn't looking good.

"I've got to get to bed, DA and quidditch practice tomorrow, we've got a game on Saturday already! They say that they need to make the matches start sooner so that they can fit all of them in."

"Yeah, I'm with you, up in a minute." Said Ron.

Harry was asleep before he hit the pillow, which didn't work out so well since hitting it woke him and he lay awake for a minute or two before he slept once more.

The next day passed laboriously slow. And Harry wasn't complaining either. The later he had to host his DA meeting the better. And it was with great dread that he entered the great hall filled with students eager to learn from the-boy-who-lived-twice. He stood at the head of the hall in front of all his pupils.

"Welcome to Dumbledore's Army, better known as the DA. As many of you know these are times that are darker than most. It is essential in this trying period that every young witch and wizard knows how to protect him or herself effectively against foes.

"The purpose of this club as some of you may assume is not to learn how to duel but how to defend. What, you may ask, is the difference? The difference is plain. When you are dueling you can expect a fair fight, when you are defending, you cannot. There are people in this world that would kill you without a second though in fact they'd probably skip the first one too."

The crowd was silent, all listening to him intently. Harry's 'scare' tactic had achieved it's purpose so he started talking a little more lightly.

"However I hope that none of you ever come in contact with Voldemort or one of his followers but I know that such is wishful thinking. Although I seriously doubt that every single one of you will rely on the skills you will learn here there will also be those that do.

"So welcome all to the DA!" he finished.

The crowd was silent. After a couple of seconds Ron started slowly clapping and soon others were joining in and soon the entire hall was clapping. He saw a group of people who were not and grinned when he saw the sulking figure of Draco Malfoy in their midst.

"So to start off I'd like to propose a demonstration duel. If you would like to participate raise your hand and a piece of parchment with your name on it will be put in this hat." Said Harry holding up a hat that Hermione had rigged for him.

Around twelve students raised their hands and Harry got Hermione to draw and not surprisingly the two names that came out were, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy strutted up to the front of the room and up onto the raised platform.

"So," he whispered, "You got my message I see."

"Sure did Malfoy," retorted Harry, "you'd better put up a good fight, I don't want to disappoint the newcomers."

"Actually I was just going to ask the same thing of you Potter."

Harry and Draco bowed then and walked away from each other. As soon as the two reached the ends of their paced they both whirled around and cast protegos on themselves. Harry smiled, looks like Draco was also playing it safe to start.

"Stupify!" shouted Harry. His curse missed Draco to the left after he sidestepped to the right. Malfoy in turn cast a stunner at Harry who leant over backwards before regaining his upright position, earning cheers from the muggle-borns who had seen 'The Matrix'.

Then Draco cast his infamous Serpent Sortia which Harry incinerated before it had the chance to do anything. Harry wished that he could call upon his powers but he wasn't sure he could do it and he wasn't willing to risk revealing them to anyone just yet.

As the duel wore on the curses became more rapid and with deadlier accuracy. Harry was confident in his dodging abilities but by the looks of it, so was Malfoy.

The duel was a stalemate until Draco decided to pull out one of his tricks and cast the tripping charm three times consecutively while approaching Harry. He had in mind to use Ron's slug puking curse.

He cast it but Harry was ready with a protego. It was then that the two of them really realized what close quarters they were at and both also realized that they would need to rely on hand-to-hand combat now.

Harry was the first to throw a punch. Draco, to Harry's surprise, caught it deftly before spinning into a kick. Harry dropped flat on his stomach and felt Draco's foot pass through his hair. He immediately heaved himself into a crouching position before sweeping Draco's legs out from underneath him.

Draco too was surprised at the amount of wizard martial arts that Harry knew. Now while he would have scorned muggle fist fighting, the difference was that wizarding martial arts were much faster paced, precise and powerful.

They both quickly thrust themselves to a standing position before they both went into a flurry of punches and blocks. After a while Harry decided to try something that professor Verplank had taught him just that day. Instantaneous movement. It was, Professor Verplank had said, difficult to master but he had faith in Harry's abilities.

Harry thrust his knee into Draco's gut but he wasn't quick enough and Draco caught it. Then he tried it. He was supposed to concentrate on where he was and then where he wanted to go and imagine himself there. He felt a strange sensation and then he saw the world pause and he slid uncontrollably straight through Malfoy to the spot that he had concentrated on behind Malfoy.

Then everything was back to normal. Draco could not comprehend it. Where had he gone? That was right before he was hit from behind with a jelly-legs curse. Harry heard applause but he was vaguely aware of it. He went over to Malfoy.

"Our deal," he said.

"We never agreed to any deal!" said Malfoy, "Even if I did tell you where to find the book of Merlin, you'd never get into our house! Er… rather…our house is very well protected so you wouldn't be able to find me…"

"We had," hissed Harry, "a deal!"

"Have I ever been one to keep my promises Potter?" smirked Malfoy.

"Sod off Malfoy, I know as well as you do that you don't want to be here."

And with that Malfoy tried to get up but his legs gave out so Harry unbound him and he got up and left the hall.

The rest of the DA meeting went rather well and Harry divided the group up amongst his original DA members. But needless to say, he was very tired by the time he flopped once more onto his bed.

The rest of the week went by quickly. Harry squeezed in as many quidditch practices as was humanly possible and he had confidence that his team would be able to perform well against Jennifer's team on Saturday.

When finally Saturday came he was glad that all the waiting and hype was over. Since there were no house teams the crowd was split between all houses. Although Harry noticed quite a few people wearing 'Potter #1', 'I ♥ Harry!' or similar. Harry smiled at this since he was actually sort of popular. He'd never been popular before. Sure he'd been famous. But famous and popular were two entirely different things.

He ate breakfast at one of two small tables set up at the front of the hall for the two Quidditch teams. Harry was pleased to note that as he walked into the hall with nothing but confidence in his stride that Jennifer paled visibly.

His team ate, or in the rookies' cases, didn't, and they made their way out to the pitch before anyone else.

Harry had long been contemplating his season-opening speech and had decided upon what he hoped would be the most effective method. He watched in silence as his team changed into their quidditch gear and sat round the tent waiting for him to say something.

As much as he wanted to avoid the 'Wood' approach he decided to give a longer speech as his first.

"If you were paying any attention at all this morning you'd have seen that the other team is scared out of their socks of us. They don't stand a chance. Only one veteran on the entire team and that's their keeper, and he didn't even play last year. Jacob, Lex; You've got some muscle on you. Don't hesitate to use it to beat their brains out. Ron, you know what to do. Chasers, they may have a bigger team than us but use your speed and pass often to use their advantage in our favor. As for me," he took a breath. A speech like this takes good lung capacity, "I'll catch the snitch."

"Let's win this thing!" he shouted.

His team cheered and they proceeded onto the field as the announcer cried out their names to the crowd. Harry didn't recognize the new announcer but he automatically assumed that he was worse than Lee.

He approached center and shook hands with Jennifer. It wasn't a squeezing match as most pre-game handshakes were though. Then they all rose into the air as Mme. Hooch blew the whistle to commence the match.

Harry was in the air and scanning the field, completely oblivious to the rest of the game below him.

"Hi," said a timid voice from behind him.

Harry turned, it was the boy that he had played against in tryouts, "Oh, hello there!" said Harry as he waved.

"Thank you for showing me that I wasn't good enough," said the boy, "I've been practicing hard. My name's Trevor. And you're-"

"And I'm Harry Potter," said Harry quickly, "Well, good luck in the match today."

"Thanks," said Trevor, "Same to you."

The match below progressed in Harry's team's favor, very much so in fact. Jacob and Lex proved to be an excellent choice on Harry's part. They played brilliantly. That's not to say that Ginny, Terry and Helaine played terribly. Quite the opposite. It was about ten minutes into the match when Harry decided to pull his first feint.

He raced completely across the pitch near the base of the left goal on his side. He was near the ground and he made sure that Trevor was close behind and he was. He was going right for the goalpost. At the very last minute he jumped to the right and threw his broom to the left and grabbed the post and swung himself around it and back onto his broom.

The crowd was still chattering with anticipation though and Harry looked around and saw that Trevor was streaming in the complete opposite direction and he watched also in dismay as he saw what he was chasing. Seconds later Trevor had the snitch. A cheer broke out from the stands and the announcer said something about the great Potter being dethroned.

Harry streaked violently to the ground where he strode to the broom shed and threw his broom in it with much force. As he walked by the stands to get to the dressing rooms he was booed and he swore at the crowd. He was nearly done changing when Ginny entered.

None of the rest of the team had dared to enter the room, even Ron.

"Good game Harry," said Ginny as though nothing was wrong, although she did blush slightly at seeing Harry shirtless.

"Good game? Good game? Bloody hell Ginny, were you watching the same game as me?"

"Sure I was, you had a nice feint there, only their seeker saw the snitch when you were in the middle of it. It could have happened to anyone really."

"Sure it could have. I'm just too damn arrogant to realize how arrogant I am!"

"You mustn't' be that hard on yourself Harry, you have enough other things to be getting on with." Soothed Ginny.

Harry took several deep breaths before exhaling rapidly and regaining his composure, "I suppose you're right. But it doesn't make loosing to a rookie after five years of playing as seeker any easier."

Ginny put her hand on Harry's bare shoulder. She could feel his muscles tense under her touch.

Her hands felt so cool on Harry's bare skin. He never wanted her to let go. They stood like that, neither realizing how long they stood there before Ginny spoke, "I'll go ahead and get changed and we'll walk back up to the castle okay?"

"Yeah, sure," said Harry who was now completely soothed.

They made their way up to the castle for the most part in silence. Other than the occasional jeer from a supporter of their opposition. Calls of 'Potty Head', 'Harry Pot-Head' and others were not uncommon as they walked around the halls back to Gryffindor tower.

Seeing as Jennifer was in Gryffindor as well there was a party that was just starting up. Harry opened up the portrait and all faces suddenly turned to him. He didn't need this. He closed the portrait again and started towards the library.

Ginny didn't question him but just followed behind him.

"Thanks Ginny," said Harry truthfully once they had reached the library.

"For what?" she asked.

"For being there for me. Again."

Her stomach jostled around from the compliment but she took it in stride, "Oh that, think nothing of it. I'm just a friend helping a friend."

"Well thanks anyways, you can't imagine how much I appreciate it. If there's ever anything you need help with then just let me know and I'd be glad to help out."

"Anything?" asked Ginny.

"Anything" confirmed Harry.

"Then you won't mind helping me out with a potions essay I've got to write."

Harry groaned good-naturedly and they set to work on another of Verplank's essays.

Later that night when they returned to the common room they found Hermione and Ron still up in the corner of the room. And, surprise, surprise, they seemed to be in the middle of a heated argument. So heated in fact they didn't even hear Harry and Ginny approach.

"-She's too young!" said Ron.

"Harry's honest enough to-" it was at this point at which she spotted them, "-make sure that…he knew… everything about the subject before helping her with her homework. Speak of the devil. Hey guys." Said Hermione over-friendlily.

"Er, hey Hermione" said Harry.

"Where have you two been?" asked Ron, a little two curiously.

"In the library" relied Ginny.

"Sno-studying I suppose?"

"What better place to study than the library?" said Ginny.

"Hate to break up this action packed discussion but I wanted to talk to you guys about what Malfoy said after the duel the other day. I had completely forgotten it in favor of quidditch until now."

"What did he say?" asked Hermione.

"He said just this, 'Even if I did tell you where to find the book of Merlin, you'd never get into our house! Er… rather…our house is very well protected so you wouldn't be able to find me…' That's it. Not much is it. Just like him to weasel out of a deal like that."

"But that does tell us something Harry!" exclaimed Hermione.

"You mean, other than Malfoy's a git?" asked Ron.

"Yes, Ron, honestly. It tells us that the book of Merlin is hidden in Malfoy manor. Simple as that."

"Well, I had figured as much but I was hoping there was something else there." Said Ron.

"So what do you make of that? Should we go to Malfoy manor to take it or something?" asked Harry.

"No," said Ginny, "that seems almost too easy. I have a feeling there's something else going on here."

Sunday found Harry in the library doing some research. Not for classes, since he had a surprisingly low amount of homework but he had an idea for his original DA group and had decided to call a meeting that night to see what people though. So he got Hermione to set his galleons for him and they met later that night in the Room of Requirement.

"Welcome back everyone," started Harry, "to the 'original DA' now I had an idea for something we could do this year seeing as we now have staff support. I though it would be good to hold a series of challenges and at the end there will only be one person left. An elimination type of thing. I will ask Dumbledore and some other professors if they would like to help us set up the challenges. What does everyone think of the idea?"

The majority of the room seemed to like the idea that Harry proposed as long as Harry agreed to still give them lessons once a week. He agreed and got to work on the first lesson. He was beginning to teach them wizarding martial arts this week seeing that after nearly a month of practice Professor Verplank had deemed both him and Neville worthy of teaching it. He had also stated that they would be working on another exciting new technique come Monday.

So Neville aided Harry in his instruction of the class. Most of them were progressing fairly well and had been able to move their hands faster than the eye could follow. And by the end of the lesson, most were already practicing anticipation in partners.

Overall, Harry was pleased with the way the lesson had went that night and he reminded everyone to keep their bodies in tip-top shape before dismissing them. He was quite happily on his way back to the common room, walking quite near Ginny, when all of a sudden someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down a side corridor.

"What do you think you're doing?" hissed Ron as to not be overheard.

"How do you mean?" asked Harry, bewildered.

"What do you mean, how do I mean?" asked Ron in turn.

"I mean, how do you mean, what do I mean… how do I mean?" Replied Harry, now thoroughly confused.

"I mean, what's going on with you and Ginny?" said Ron furiously. Harry was glad Ron wasn't standing in front of something scarlet red otherwise he wouldn't have been able to tell where his face was.

"Nothing," said Harry, "Honestly."

"Don't 'nothing, honestly' me Harry. I see the way you look at her. I see the way you talk to her. I see the way you everything around her."

"Relax Ron," said Harry, "even if I did like her she's old enough to make up her own mind about things."

"You're right Harry," said Ron patting Harry's shoulder, "I'm way too overprotective of her and I know it. If she were to go out with anyone in fact I'd hope it'd be you but no matter who it is, they've got to get my permission first."

"Uh, sure" said Harry, and to change topic, "We'll need to work on a better game plan for next game."

"Yeah in fact I was thinking of using the georgienski technique for our next game-" started Ron.

Harry walked the rest of the way to the common room with Ron, nodding and occasionally adding, 'oh yeah', 'oh right' or a 'sounds good' in when Ron paused. But his mind was some other where completely. It was focused upon a girl. Why were they so difficult to work out? There were people like Rodger Davies who had had close to seven girlfriends in the past year who could just ask a girl out like it was nothing.

How Harry wished that he could be so charming, so suave, so cool. But alas, he knew that day would never come so he may as well be content with what he had. It was then that he decided to subtly leave hints to Ginny that he liked her. Perhaps an occasional compliment or similar. But he was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard the very person, on whom his thoughts were currently fixed, scream.


End file.
